High expression of TACC3 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma correlates with poor prognosis

TACC3: a multi-functional protein promoting cancer cell survival and aggressiveness

TACC3 is the most oncogenic member of the transforming acidic coiled-coil domain-containing protein (TACC) family. It is one of the major recruitment factors of distinct multi-protein complexes. TACC3 is localized to spindles, centrosomes, and nucleus, and regulates key oncogenic processes, including cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and stemness. Recently, TACC3 inhibition has been identified as a vulnerability in highly aggressive cancers, such as cancers with centrosome amplification (CA). TACC3 has spatiotemporal functions throughout the cell cycle; therefore, targeting TACC3 causes cell death in mitosis and interphase in cancer cells with CA. In the clinics, TACC3 is highly expressed and associated with worse survival in multiple cancers. Furthermore, TACC3 is a part of one of the most common fusions of FGFR, FGFR3-TACC3 and is important for the oncogenicity of the fusion. A detailed understanding of the regulation of TACC3 expression, its key partners, and molecular functions in cancer cells is vital for uncovering the most vulnerable tumors and maximizing the therapeutic potential of targeting this highly oncogenic protein. In this review, we summarize the established and emerging interactors and spatiotemporal functions of TACC3 in cancer cells, discuss the potential of TACC3 as a biomarker in cancer, and therapeutic potential of its inhibition.

Elevated expression of transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) reflects aggressiveness of primary central nervous system lymphomas

Transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) plays an important role in centrosome/microtubule dynamics. Deregulation of centrosomes/microtubules causes mitotic spindle defects, leading to tumorigenesis. However, the correlation between TACC3 and primary central nervous system lymphomas (PCNSLs) is unknown. The present study investigated the association between the immunohistochemical expression of TACC3, p53, and Ki-67, and the clinical factors in 40 PCNSLs. We evaluated the staining of TACC3 based on the histoscore (H-score) that contains a semiquantitative evaluation of both the intensity of staining, and the percentage of positive cells. Expression level of each component was classified as low or high according to the median H-score value. Patients with PCNSLs were divided into groups depending on TACC3 expression levels (no expression and low expression, 18; high expression, 22). Disease-free survival and overall survival of patients with high TACC3 expression were significantly shorter (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). These results suggest that elevated expression of TACC3 could reflects aggressiveness of primary central nervous system lymphomas.

Transforming acidic coiled-coil protein-3: a novel marker for differential diagnosis and prognosis prediction in endocervical adenocarcinoma

Background

Endocervical adenocarcinoma (ECA) is further classified as human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated (HPVA) or non-HPVA (NHPVA), per the International Endocervical Adenocarcinoma Criteria and Classification (IECC). HPVA is a glandular tumor with stromal invasion and/or exophytic expansile-type invasion, associated with the typical molecular characteristics of high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) infection. Transforming acidic coiled-coil protein-3 (TACC3),an oncogene that is frequently abnormally expressed,represents a vital biomarker for multiple human malignancies. This study aimed to examine the role of TACC3 in the diagnosis and prognosis of ECA.

Methods

We analyzed 264 patients with ECA who underwent surgical resection, classifying their tumors into HPVA and NHPVA subtypes. The expression levels of TACC3, P16, MLH1, PMS2, MSH2, MSH6 and Ki-67 in tumors were evaluated by tissue microarray using immunohistochemistry (IHC). HPV subtypes were identified in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) ECA tissues by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results

ECA samples showed increased TACC3 expression relative to adjacent non-carcinoma samples. TACC3 expression was higher in HPVA than in NHPA. In the HPVA subtype, high TACC3 expression was significantly correlated with P16-positive, Ki-67-high expression. Furthermore, TACC3 levels were significantly related to tumor histological type (P = 0.006), nerve invasion (P = 0.003), differentiation (P = 0.004), surgical margin (P = 0.012), parametrium invasion (P = 0.040), P16 expression (P < 0.001), and Ki-67 (P = 0.004). Additionally, Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that TACC3 upregulation was associated with poor overall survival (OS, P = 0.001), disease-free survival (DFS, P < 0.001), and recurrence survival (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that elevated TACC3 expression served as a marker to independently predict ECA prognosis. ROC curve analyses indicated that TACC3, P16, and HPV subtypes showed similar utility for distinguishing HPVA from NHPVA, with areas under the ROC curves of 0.640, 0.649, and 0.675, respectively. The combination of TACC3 and HPV subtypes improved the diagnostic performance of ECA compared with TACC3, P16, and HPV subtypes alone.

Conclusions

Taken together, our findings identify that TACC3 is a promising complementary biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis for patients with ECA.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s10020-021-00298-z.

Nomogram based on immune scores for predicting the survival of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Objective

To explore the relationship between immune scores and prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and construct a corresponding clinical prediction model.

Methods

The present research was a retrospective cohort study. We obtained the clinical information and immune scores of 137 patients with ESCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and a Cox proportional risk model was used to construct the clinical prediction model. The concordance index, receiver operating characteristic curve, calibration curve, net reclassification improvement (NRI), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were used to evaluate model performance and prediction accuracy.

Results

Patients with a high immune score (> −121.4) showed a worse prognosis than those with a low immune score (< −645.8; hazard ratio=3.743, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.385–10.115, P=0.009). The concordance index of the predictive model was 0.733 (95% CI=0.655–0.812). The calibration curve showed that the 3- and 5-year overall survival rates predicted by the model were highly consistent with the observed values. The NRI and IDI for the 3-year overall survival indicated that the model with the immune scores was superior for classifying the risk probability and distinguishing cases.

Conclusion

Immune scores may be an independent predictor of prognosis in patients with ESCC.

Specific DNA methylation markers in the diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal cancer

The early diagnosis and accurate prognosis prediction of esophageal cancer is an essential part of improving survival. However, these diseases lack effective and specific markers. A total of 1,744 samples of HumanMethylation450 data were integrated to identify and validate specific methylation markers for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) as well as for Barrett's esophagus (BE) using The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Gene Expression Omnibus. The diagnostic and prognostic methylation classifiers were constructed by moderated t-statistics and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method. The diagnostic methylation classifier using 12 CpG sites was constructed in training set (377 samples) that could effectively discriminate samples of BE, EAC, and ESCC from normal tissue (AUC = 0.992), which achieved highly predictive ability in both internal (187 samples, AUC = 0.990) and external validation (184 samples, AUC = 0.978). The prognostic methylation classifier with 3 CpG and 2 CpG sites for EAC and ESCC respectively, could accurately estimate the prognosis of an individual patient and improved the predictive ability of the tumor node metastasis staging system. Overall, our study systematically analyzed large-scale methylation data and provided promising markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal cancer.

Pretreatment TACC3 expression in locally advanced rectal cancer decreases the response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy

Chemoradiotherapy combined with surgical resection is the standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer, but not all the patients respond to neoadjuvant treatment. Transforming acidic coiled-coil protein-3 (TACC3) is frequently aberrantly expressed in rectal cancer tissue. In this study, we investigated whether TACC3 could serve as a biomarker predictive of the efficacy of chemoradiotherapy. In all, 152 rectal cancer patients with tumor tissue collected at biopsy and set aside before treatment were enrolled in this study. All patients received chemoradiotherapy and surgical resection. Immunohistochemically detected tumoral TACC3 expression significantly decreased sensitivity to chemoradiotherapy [risk ratio (RR) = 2.236, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.447-3.456; P = 0.001] and thus the pathological complete response rate (P = 0.001). TACC3 knockdown using specific siRNA enhanced radiotherapy-induced decreases in proliferation and colony formation by HCT116 and SW480 cells and increased the incidence of radiotherapy-induced apoptosis. Cox multivariate analysis showed that TACC3 was a significant prognostic factor for overall survival (P = 0.017) and disease-free survival (P = 0.020). These findings suggest TACC3 expression may be predictive of chemoradiotherapy sensitivity and prognosis in locally advanced rectal cancer.

The Evolving Landscape of Cancer Stem Cells and Ways to Overcome Cancer Heterogeneity

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) with therapeutic resistance and plasticity can be found in various types of tumors and are recognized as attractive targets for treatments. As CSCs are derived from tissue stem or progenitor cells, and/or dedifferentiated mature cells, their signal transduction pathways are critical in the regulation of CSCs; chronic inflammation causes the accumulation of genetic mutations and aberrant epigenetic changes in these cells, potentially leading to the production of CSCs. However, the nature of CSCs appears to be stronger than the treatments of the past. To improve the treatments targeting CSCs, it is important to inhibit several molecules on the signaling cascades in CSCs simultaneously, and to overcome cancer heterogeneity caused by the plasticity. To select suitable target molecules for CSCs, we have to explore the landscape of CSCs from the perspective of cancer stemness and signaling systems, based on the curated databases of cancer-related genes. We have been studying the integration of a broad range of knowledge and experiences from cancer biology, and also from other interdisciplinary basic sciences. In this review, we have introduced the concept of developing novel strategies targeting CSCs.

High expression of TACC2 in hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with poor prognosis

BACKGROUND:

Transforming acidic coiled-coil protein 2 (TACC2) is a member of TACC family proteins which is mainly involved in the stabilization of spindles and regulation of microtubule dynamics through interactions with molecules involved in centrosomes/microtubules. TACC2 is involved in tumorigenesis of variety of cancers but the clinical significance of TACC2 protein in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unclear.

OBJECTIVE:

This study aims to investigate the expression of TACC2 in HCC and determine if clinical significance and prognostic relevance exists.

METHODS:

We performed quantitative PCR (qPCR) and western blot to examine TACC2 mRNA and protein expression in paired HCC tissues and matched adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Immunohistochemistry was performed in 106 postoperative HCC samples.

RESULTS:

There was higher expression of TACC2 protein and mRNA in HCC tissue. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed high expression of TACC2 in HCC tissue and was significantly associated with the capsular extension, tumor recurrence and shortened overall and disease free survival. The Cox regression analysis suggested that a high expression of TACC2 was an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients.

CONCLUSION:

This finding suggests that TACC2 may be a useful tool as a candidate biomarker to predict the recurrence and prognosis of HCC.

Elevated Expression of Transforming Acidic Coiled-Coil Containing Protein 3 (TACC3) Is Associated With a Poor Prognosis in Osteosarcoma

BACKGROUND

Transforming acidic coiled-coil containing protein 3 (TACC3) is expressed during the mitotic phase of nuclear division and regulates microtubules. Recently, high TACC3 expression in tumor cells of various cancers including soft tissue sarcoma has been reported. However, its role in osteosarcoma remains unknown. Because we have few prognostic markers for survival in osteosarcoma, we wanted to investigate the potential role of TACC3 in human osteosarcoma and determine if it is associated with survival.

QUESTIONS/PURPOSES

(1) Is there a relationship between TACC3 expression and clinicopathologic characteristics such as sex, age (< 20 or ≥ 20 years), histologic type (osteoblastic or others), tumor location (femur or others), American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system (AJCC stage IIA or IIB), tumor necrosis percentage after chemotherapy (< 90% or ≥ 90%), p53 expression (low or high), and Ki-67 expression (low or high)? (2) Is TACC3 expression associated with event-free and overall survival in patients with osteosarcoma?

METHODS

Forty-six conventional patients with osteosarcoma were treated at our institution from 1989 to 2013. Patients were excluded because of unresectable primary site (two patients) and no chemotherapy (two patients). Patients with metastasis at the initial visit (five patients), without pretreatment biopsy samples (two patients), or clinical charts (two patients) were also excluded. The left 33 patients who received neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy, which consisted of cisplatin/doxorubicin/methotrexate or cisplatin/doxorubicin/methotrexate/ifosfamide, and completed surgical resection with histologic wide tumor margins. Primary tumor samples before chemotherapy were used in this study. We investigated TACC3 expression using immunohistochemical staining and statistically analyzed the TACC3 expression, clinicopathologic characteristics, and event-free and overall survival in patients with osteosarcoma.

RESULTS

High TACC3 expression was observed in 19 of 33 osteosarcoma specimens (58%), and this was associated with larger tumor size (ie, AJCC stage IIB in this study; p = 0.002), higher p53 expression (p = 0.007), and higher Ki-67 expression (p = 0.002). The estimated metastasis-free survival at 5 years was 21% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7%-41%) in patients with high TACC3 expression and 79% (95% CI, 47%-93%) in patients with low TACC3 expression (p < 0.001), and the estimated overall survival at 5 years was 34% (95% CI, 13%-56%) in patients with high TACC3 expression and 86% (95% CI, 54%-96%) in patients with low TACC3 expression (p < 0.001). Furthermore, high TACC3 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for metastasis-free survival with a hazard ratio of 3.89 (95% CI, 1.07-19.78; p = 0.039) as well as overall survival with 4.41 (95% CI, 1.01-32.97; p = 0.049).

CONCLUSIONS

High TACC3 expression was associated with aggressive clinicopathologic features and unfavorable prognosis in these patients with osteosarcoma. Our preliminary results suggest that further analysis about mutation or an inactive form of TACC3 would be useful to understand the mechanism of abnormal TACC3 expression in patients with osteosarcoma. If these findings are substantiated in larger studies, TACC3 might be useful for predicting survival and a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level III, therapeutic study.

Overexpression of TACC3 in Breast Cancer Associates With Poor Prognosis

Increasing evidences suggest that transforming acidic coiled-coil protein 3 (TACC3) is associated with various types of human cancer. However, the expression of TACC3 in breast cancer tissues remains largely unknown. To identify whether TACC3 can serve as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry staining were utilized to detect the expression of TACC3. The mRNA and protein levels of TACC3 in breast cancer samples were novelty higher compared with nontumorous breast tissues. Immunohistochemistry results revealed TACC3 expression was significantly correlated to lymphoid nodal metastasis (P=0.035) and HER-2 status (P=0.021). The patients with high expression of TACC3 had a significantly poor prognosis compared with patients with low expression (P=0.017), especially in the patients with pathological tumor size 2-4 status (P=0.028). Furthermore, multivariate analysis indicated that TACC3 expression was an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer patients (P=0.029). This study, first, suggested TACC3 might be an important molecular marker for diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer.

Downregulation of TACC3 inhibits tumor growth and migration in osteosarcoma cells through regulation of the NF-κB signaling pathway

TACC3, a member of the transforming acidic coiled-coil protein (TACC) family, is a multifunctional protein that is involved in various biological functions, including proliferation and differentiation of tumor cells, cancer progression and metastasis. The aims of the present study were to examine whether TACC3 expression is associated with the proliferation and migration of osteosarcoma (OS) cells and to investigate the potential underlying molecular mechanisms of TACC3 in OS. First, the levels of mRNA and protein expression in OS cell lines by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting, respectively were examined. Second, the effects of TACC3 knockdown and overexpression on the proliferative, migratory and invasive capacities of OS cells were investigated. Finally, western blot analysis was employed to detect the potential mechanism of TACC3 in osteosarcoma. TACC3 expression was significantly increased in osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines, compared to matched controls. The knockdown of TACC3 was able to significantly inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of osteosarcoma cells, whereas the overexpression of TACC3 was able to promote cell proliferation and migration. Mechanistically, TACC3 may promote the migration and invasion of osteosarcoma cells via through nuclear factor-κB signaling. These data suggest that TACC3 has an important part in the progression of osteosarcoma and may serve as a potential target for gene therapy.

Knockdown of TACC3 Inhibits the Proliferation and Invasion of Human Renal Cell Carcinoma Cells

Transforming acidic coiled-coil protein 3 (TACC3) is a member of the TACC family and plays an important role in regulating cell mitosis, transcription, and tumorigenesis. However, the expression pattern and roles of TACC3 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of TACC3 in RCC. We demonstrated overexpression of TACC3 in human RCC cell lines at both RNA and protein levels. Moreover, knockdown of TACC3 repressed RCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. In addition, knockdown of TACC3 inactivated PI3K/Akt signaling in RCC cells. Furthermore, knockdown of TACC3 significantly reduced tumor growth in xenograft tumor-bearing mice. Taken together, our findings showed that TACC3 was increased in human RCC cell lines, and knockdown of TACC3 inhibited the ability of cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and tumorigenesis in vivo. Therefore, TACC3 may act as a therapeutic target for the treatment of human RCC.

TACC3 overexpression in cholangiocarcinoma correlates with poor prognosis and is a potential anti-cancer molecular drug target for HDAC inhibitors

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been implicated in multiple malignant tumors, and HDAC inhibitors (HDACIs) exert anti-cancer effects. However, the expression of HDACs and the anti-tumor mechanism of HDACIs in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) have not yet been elucidated. In this study, we found that expression of HDACs 2, 3, and 8 were up-regulated in CCA tissues and those patients with high expression of HDAC2 and/or HDAC3 had a worse prognosis. In CCA cells, two HDACIs, trichostatin (TSA) and vorinostat (SAHA), suppressed proliferation and induced apoptosis and G2/M cycle arrest. Microarray analysis revealed that TACC3 mRNA was down-regulated in CCA cells treated with TSA. TACC3 was highly expressed in CCA tissues and predicted a poor prognosis in CCA patients. TACC3 knockdown induced G2/M cycle arrest and suppressed the invasion, metastasis, and proliferation of CCA cells, both in vitro and in vivo. TACC3 overexpression reversed the effects of its knockdown. These findings suggest TACC3 may be a useful prognostic biomarker for CCA and is a potential therapeutic target for HDACIs.

TACC3 transcriptionally upregulates E2F1 to promote cell growth and confer sensitivity to cisplatin in bladder cancer

Accumulating evidence has shown that transforming acidic coiled-coil 3 (TACC3) is deregulated in a broad spectrum of cancers. In the present study, we reported that TACC3 was markedly elevated in bladder cancer, especially in muscle-invasive bladder cancers (MIBCs). The upregulation of TACC3 was positively associated with tumor invasiveness, grade, T stage, and progression in patients with bladder cancer. Furthermore, a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with bladder cancer whose tumors had high TACC3 expression experienced a dismal prognosis compared with patients whose tumors had low TACC3 expression. Functional studies have found that TACC3 is a prerequisite for the development of malignant characteristics of bladder cancer cells, including cell proliferation and invasion. Moreover, TACC3 promoted G1/S transition, which was mediated via activation of the transcription of E2F1, eventually enhancing cell proliferation. Notably, the overexpression of TACC3 or E2F1 indicates a high sensitivity to cisplatin. Taken together, these findings define a tumor-supportive role for TACC3, which may also serve as a prognostic and therapeutic indicator in bladder cancers.

TACC3 promotes colorectal cancer tumourigenesis and correlates with poor prognosis

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is a malignant epithelial tumour with tremendous invasion and metastatic capacity. Transforming acidic coiled-coil protein-3 (TACC3), a frequently aberrantly expressed oncogene, is an important biomarker in various human cancers. Our study aimed to investigate the expression and function of TACC3 in human CRC. We found that TACC3 was over-expressed at both the mRNA and protein levels in CRC cells and in biopsies of CRC tissues compared with normal controls as determined by qRT-PCR, western blot and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining assays. IHC staining of samples from 161 patients with CRC also revealed that TACC3 expression was significantly correlated with clinical stage (P = 0.045), T classification (P = 0.029) and M classification (P = 0.020). Multivariate analysis indicated that high TACC3 expression was an independent prognostic marker for CRC. Patients who had high TACC3 expression had significantly poorer overall survival (OS, P = 0.023) and disease-free survival (DFS, P = 0.019) compared to patients who had low TACC3 expression. Furthermore, TACC3 knockdown attenuated CRC cell proliferation, colony formation capability, migration and invasion capability, and tumourigenesis in nude mice; these properties were measured using a real-time cell analyser (RTCA), clonogenicity analysis, and transwell and xenograft assays, respectively. These data indicate that TACC3 promotes CRC progression and could be an independent prognostic factor and a potential therapeutic target for CRC.

Clinicopathological and prognostic value of transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) expression in soft tissue sarcomas

Transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3), a microtubule regulator, is associated with various cancers. However, the relationship between TACC3 and soft tissue sarcomas (STS) remains unclear. We investigated the expression of TACC3 in 136 STS patient samples using immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, and the statistical associations between TACC3 expression and clinicopathological characteristics were evaluated. Additionally, the expression levels of the tumor suppressor p53 and of the cell proliferation marker Ki-67 were also assessed by IHC. High TACC3 expression was detected in 94/136 of STS cases (69.1%), and significantly correlated with higher grade according to the French Fédération Nationale des Centres de Lutte Contre le Cancer system (P<0.0001), poorer tumor differentiation (P<0.0001), increased mitotic counts (P<0.0001), advanced stage per American Joint Committee on Cancer guidelines (P<0.0001), higher p53 expression (P = 0.0487), higher Ki-67 expression (P<0.0001), and undergoing postoperative therapy (P = 0.0001). Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with high TACC3 expression were significantly shorter (P<0.0001 and P<0.0001, respectively). On multivariate analyses, high TACC3 expression was an independent negative prognostic factor for both DFS and OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.074; P = 0.0235 and HR: 8.521; P = 0.0415, respectively). Our results suggest that TACC3 is an independent prognostic factor and may be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of STS.

TACC3 as an independent prognostic marker for solid tumors: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Recent studies have showed that the transforming acidic coiled coil 3 (TACC3), was aberrantly up-regulated in various solid tumors and was reported to be correlated with unfavorable prognosis in cancer patients. This study aimed to examine the relationship between TACC3 and relevant clinical outcomes. Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Library were systematically searched to obtain all eligible articles. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the influence of TACC3 expression on overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in solid tumors patients. A total of 1943 patients from 11 articles were included. The result indicated that a significantly shorter OS was observed in patients with high expression level of TACC3 (HR=1.90, 95% CI=1.63-2.23). In the subgroup analysis, the association was also observed in patients with cancers of digestive system (HR=1.85, 95% CI=1.53-2.24). Statistical significance was also observed in subgroup meta-analysis stratified by the cancer type, analysis type and sample size. Furthermore, poorer DFS was observed in patients with high expression level of TACC3 (HR=2.67, 95% CI=2.10-3.40). Additionally, the pooled odds ratios (ORs) showed that increased TACC3 expression was also related to positive lymph node metastasis (OR=1.68, 95% CI=1.26-2.25), tumor differentiation (OR=1.90, 95% CI=1.25-2.88) and TNM stage (OR=1.66, 95% CI=1.25-2.20). In conclusion, the increased expression level of TACC3 was associated with unfavorable prognosis, suggesting that it was a valuable prognosis biomarker or a promising therapeutic target of solid tumors. Further studies should be conducted to confirm the clinical utility of TACC3 in human solid tumors.

The Prognostic Value of Peripheral Benzodiazepine Receptor in Patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: The peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) has previously been reported as an oncogene in prostate, breast and colorectal cancers, but its prognostic value, biological behavior and function in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been investigated. Methods: qRT-PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to detect PBR expression in ESCC and matched non-cancerous tissues. Based on all of the significantly independent factors, a nomogram was established to predict the prognosis of ESCC patients. In addition, we performed comprehensive in vitro experiments to study the functions of PBR in cell growth, colony formation, and migration ability, as well as its relationship with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related proteins in ESCC cells. Results: The mRNA and protein expression levels of PBR in ESCC were higher than those in adjacent non-tumor esophageal epithelial tissues. The IHC results demonstrated that PBR expression was an independent prognostic factor in ESCC survival, patients with higher PBR expression had a poorer survival than those with low expression, and PBR expression was significantly associated with lymphoid nodal status. Furthermore, a nomogram was established to reliably predict the probability of death in ESCC patients, with a Harrell's c-index of 0.696. In the vitro experiments, knocking down the expression of PBR inhibited proliferation, colony formation and migration of ESCC cells, and regulated EMT-associated proteins (up-regulation of E-cadherin, ZO-1 and β-catenin and concomitant with down-regulation of Fibronectin and N-cadherin). Conclusions: PBR is an independent prognostic factor in ESCC, and it promotes ESCC progression and metastasis. Basing on PBR expression level, a nomogram is established and performs a well in predicting survival of ESCC patients.

Immune signature profiling identified predictive and prognostic factors for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Understanding interactions between tumor and the host immune system holds great promise to uncover biomarkers for targeted therapies and clinical outcomes. However, systematical analysis of immune signatures in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains largely unstudied. In this study, immune signatures containing 708 immune related genes were curated from mRNA microarray data with tumor and paired normal tissues from 119 ESCC patients. Differential expression and survival analysis were performed with validations from Human Protein Atlas and an independent cohort of 110 ESCC patients by immunohistochemistry staining. We identified a total of 186 significantly dysregulated genes in ESCC, including downregulated genes SPINK5, IL1RN and upregulated genes SPP1 and PLAU, which were further confirmed in Human Protein Atlas data. Moreover, nine immune related genes (ABL1, ATF2, ATG5, C6, CD38, HMGB1, ICOSLG, IL12RB2 and PLAU) were significantly associated with patients' overall survival, among which, prognostic model was built including three independent factors ABL1, CD38 and ICOSLG. Validation by immunohistochemistry staining suggested that combination with tumor infiltrated CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes would yield higher performance in distinguishing cases as high or low risk of unfavorable prognosis. In summary, we profiled the immune status in ESCC and established predictive and prognostic factors for ESCC, which could reflect immune disorders within tumor microenvironments and independently distinguish patients with a high risk of reduced survival, providing novel predictive and therapeutic targets for ESCC patients in the future.

Overexpression of TACC3 is correlated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in prostate cancer

Transforming acidic coiled-coil (TACC3), a member of the TACC family, has been shown to be deregulated in various cancers and involved in tumor progression. However, its biological role and molecular mechanism in prostate cancer (PCa) have not been elucidated. Herein, we reported that TACC3 was markedly upregulated in metastatic PCa. The upregulation of TACC3 was significantly associated with the metastasis status, tumor stage, total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, and Gleason score in patients with PCa. Moreover, a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with PCa who had high TACC3 expression experienced shorter disease-free survival than patients with a low TACC3 expression. In addition, the knockdown of TACC3 dramatically reduced the migratory speed and invasiveness of PCa cells. Furthermore, silencing TACC3 markedly suppressed the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Taken together, these findings uncover a supportive role for TACC3 in PCa metastasis, which is mediated by the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, suggesting that TACC3 may serve as a prognostic marker in patients with metastatic PCa.

Overexpression of Transforming Acidic Coiled Coil‑Containing Protein 3 Reflects Malignant Characteristics and Poor Prognosis of Glioma

Gliomas are malignant primary brain tumors with poor prognosis. Recently, research was indicative of a tight connection between tumor malignancy and genetic alterations. Here, we propose an oncogenic implication of transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) in gliomas. By comprehensively analyzing the Chinese glioma genome atlas (CGGA) and publicly available data, we demonstrated that TACC3 were overexpressed along with glioma grade and served as an independent negative prognostic biomarker for glioma patients. Functions’ annotations and gene sets’ enrichment analysis suggested that TACC3 may participate in cell cycle, DNA repair, epithelium-mesenchymal transition and other tumor-related biological processes and molecular pathways. Patients with high TACC3 expression showed CD133⁺ stem cell properties, glioma plasticity and shorter overall survival time under chemo-/radio-therapy. Additionally, a TACC3 associated the miRNA-mRNA network was constructed based on in silico prediction and expression pattern, which provide a foundation for further detection of TACC3-miRNA-mRNA axis function. Collectively, our observations identify TACC3 as an oncogene of tumor malignancy, as well as a prognostic and motoring biomarker for glioma patients.

Systematic Identification of Oncogenic EGFR Interaction Partners

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a receptor tyrosine kinase (TK) that—once activated upon ligand binding—leads to receptor dimerization, recruitment of protein complexes, and activation of multiple signaling cascades. The EGFR is frequently overexpressed or mutated in various cancers leading to aberrant signaling and tumor growth. Hence, identification of interaction partners that bind to mutated EGFR can help identify novel targets for drug discovery.

Here, we used a systematic approach to identify novel proteins that are involved in cancerous EGFR signaling. Using a combination of high-content imaging and a mammalian membrane two-hybrid protein–protein interaction method, we identified eight novel interaction partners of EGFR, of which half strongly interacted with oncogenic, hyperactive EGFR variants. One of these, transforming acidic coiled-coil proteins (TACC) 3, stabilizes EGFR on the cell surface, which results in an increase in downstream signaling via the mitogen-activated protein kinase and AKT pathway. Depletion of TACC3 from cells using small hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown or small-molecule targeting reduced mitogenic signaling in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines, suggesting that targeting TACC3 has potential as a new therapeutic approach for non-small cell lung cancer.

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A combined screening approach involving an image-based green fluorescent protein-Grb2 translocation assay and a mammalian membrane two-hybrid protein–protein interaction assay identified 11 novel interactors of EGFR.

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Eight of those were further confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation.

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TACC3 was identified as a novel EGFR interactor, which specifically binds to oncogenic EGFR variants.

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TACC3 directly modulates EGFR stability at the cell surface and hence promotes mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling.

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Targeting TACC3 in non-small cell lung cancer cells partially resensitizes TK-resistant cells to TK inhibitors.

A panel of autoantibodies against multiple tumor-associated antigens in the immunodiagnosis of esophageal squamous cell cancer

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common cancers in China with very low 5-year survival rate mostly due to the paucity of effective early diagnostic methods. Serum autoantibodies against 9 tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) from ESCC patients and healthy controls were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to evaluate their performances in the immunodiagnosis of ESCC. Logistic regression models were generated to predict the probability of individuals being diagnosed with ESCC in training cohort (648 participants) and further validated in another independent cohort (372 participants). Finally, a panel of four TAAs showed high diagnostic accuracy with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.838 in training cohort and 0.872 in validation cohort, respectively. The percentages of individuals correctly classified were 77.01 % in training cohort and 78.49 % in validation cohort, respectively. This model could discriminate early-stage (AJCC stage 0, I and II) ESCC patients from normal controls, with true-positive rate (TPR) of 67.57 % in training cohort and TPR of 63.33 % in validation cohort, and the overall TPR for early-stage ESCC was 66.85 % when the two cohorts were combined. The diagnostic performance of this model showed no significant difference between early-stage and late-stage (AJCC stage III and IV) ESCC patients. In summary, the optimized model with 4 TAAs has a high diagnostic performance for ESCC detection, especially for early-stage ESCC.

FGFR3-TACC3 fusion in solid tumors: mini review

Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR) are transmembrane kinase proteins with growing importance in cancer biology given the frequency of molecular alterations and vast interface with multiple other signaling pathways. Furthermore, numerous FGFR inhibitors in clinical development demonstrate the expanding therapeutic relevance of this pathway. Indeed, results from early phase clinical trials already indicate that a subset of patients with advanced tumors derive benefit from FGFR targeted therapies. FGFR gene aberrations and FGFR gene rearrangements are relatively rare in solid malignancies. The recently described FGFR3-TACC3 fusion protein has a constitutively active tyrosine kinase domain and promotes aneuploidy. We summarize the prevalence data on FGFR3-TACC3 fusions among different histological tumor types and the preliminary evidence that this rearrangement represents a targetable molecular aberration in some patients with solid tumors.

Knockdown of TACC3 inhibits trophoblast cell migration and invasion through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway

The insufficient invasion of trophoblasts is known to be correlated with the development of preeclampsia. Transforming acidic coiled‑coil protein 3 (TACC3), a member of the TACC domain family, is important in the regulation of cell differentiation, migration and invasion. However, the role of TACC3 in trophoblast function during placental development remains to be fully elucidated. The present study aimed to determine the expression and function of TACC3 in human placenta and to examine the underlying mechanisms. TACC3 expression was analyzed in preeclamptic placentas using reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. Cell proliferation was determined by the MTT assay, and cell migration and invasion were measured using Transwell assays. The expression levels of TACC3, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‑2, MMP‑9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)‑1, TIMP‑2, phosphoinositide 3‑kinase (PI3K), phosphorylated (p)‑PI3K, AKT and p‑AKT were detected by western blotting. The results showed that the expression of TACC3 was downregulated in preeclamptic placentas. The knockdown of TACC3 significantly inhibited HTR8/SVneo cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and inhibited the expression of matrix metalloproteinases. In addition, the knockdown of TACC3 significantly reduced the levels of p‑PI3K and Akt in the HTR8/SVneo cells. Taken together, the results of the present study demonstrated that the knockdown of TACC3 inhibited the migration and invasion of HTR8/SVneo cells through suppression of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Therefore, TACC3 may serve as a novel potential target for treating preeclampsia.

Esophageal cancer stem cells and implications for future therapeutics

Esophageal carcinoma (EC) is a lethal disease with high morbidity and mortality worldwide, and the incidence has been increasing in recent years. Although the diagnosis and treatment of EC have improved considerably, EC has rapidly progressed in the clinical setting and has a poor prognosis for its metastasis and recurrence. The general idea of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is primarily based on clinical and experimental observations, indicating the existence of a subpopulation of cells that can self-renew and differentiate. The EC stem cells, which can be isolated from normal pluripotent stem cells by applying similar biomarkers, may participate in promoting esophageal tumorigenesis through renewal and repair. In this review, major emphasis is given to CSC markers, altered CSC-specific pathways, and molecular targeting agents currently available to target CSCs of esophageal cancer. The roles of numerous markers (CD44, aldehyde dehydrogenase, CD133, and ATP-binding cassette subfamily G member 2) and developmental signaling pathways (Wnt/β-catenin, Notch, hedgehog, and Hippo) in isolating esophageal CSCs are discussed in detail. Targeting CSCs can be a logical strategy to treat EC, as these cells are responsible for carcinoma recurrence and chemoradiation resistance.

Prognostic nomogram for previously untreated patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after esophagectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to establish an effective prognostic nomogram for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after radical esophagectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy in those previously untreated patients.

METHODS

The clinicopathological data from 328 patients who underwent radical esophagectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy or not at the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital between 2006 and 2010 were retrospectively studied. Nomograms which predicted survival of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were established based on the Cox proportional hazards regression model. To determine its predictive accuracy and discriminatory capacity, the concordance index and calibration curve were calculated after bootstrapping in the internal validation. An external validation of 76 patients in 2011 was prospectively studied at the same institution. To verify the performance of the nomogram, the comparison between the nomogram and Tumor-Node-Metastasis staging system was conducted.

RESULTS

The 5-year overall survival was 43.1% in the primary cohort. Based on multivariate analyses, five independent prognostic variables including gender, tumor length, T stage, N stage and chemotherapy cycles were selected to build the nomograms to predict disease-free survival and overall survival. The concordance index of the nomogram to predict overall survival was 0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.79), which was superior to the predictive power of Tumor-Node-Metastasis staging system (0.64) in the primary cohort. Meanwhile, the calibration curve showed good accuracy between predictive and actual overall survival. In the validation cohort, the concordance index (0.77) and calibration plot displayed favorable performances. The other nomogram to predict disease-free survival also performed well.

CONCLUSIONS

The prognostic nomogram provided individualized risk estimate of survival in patients after esophagectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy.