Expression and phosphorylation of Stathmin 1 indicate poor survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and associate with immune suppression

STNM1 in human cancers: role, function and potential therapy sensitizer

STMN1 belongs to the stathmin gene family, it encodes a cytoplasmic phosphorylated protein, stathmin1, which is commonly observed in vertebrate cells. STMN1 is a structural microtubule-associated protein (MAP) that binds to microtubule protein dimers rather than microtubules, with each STMN1 binding two microtubule protein dimers and preventing their aggregation, leading to microtubule instability. STMN1 expression is elevated in a number of malignancies, and inhibition of its expression can interfere with tumor cell division. Its expression can change the division of tumor cells, thereby arresting cell growth in the G2/M phase. Moreover, STMN1 expression affects tumor cell sensitivity to anti-microtubule drug analogs, including vincristine and paclitaxel. The research on MAPs is limited, and new insights on the mechanism of STMN1 in different cancers are emerging. The effective application of STMN1 in cancer prognosis and treatment requires further understanding of this protein. Here, we summarize the general characteristics of STMN1 and outline how STMN1 plays a role in cancer development, targeting multiple signaling networks and acting as a downstream target for multiple microRNAs, circRNAs, and lincRNAs. We also summarize recent findings on the function role of STMN1 in tumor resistance and as a therapeutic target for cancer.

Stathmin 1 and p53 Expression in Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Precursor Lesions

ABSTRACT

Studies on the relationship between stathmin 1 (STMN1) and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) are limited. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between clinicopathological factors and STMN1 and p53 expressions in cSCC and compare them with those in the precursor lesions of cSCC and normal tissue. A total of 195 patients, followed between January 2014 and December 2021, with diagnoses of primary cSCC (n = 129), in situ cSCC (n = 20), or actinic keratosis (n = 46), as well as 29 histopathologically normal tissue samples, were included in the study. Immunohistochemical staining for STMN1 and p53 was performed. In the cSCC group, STMN1 scores were higher in poorly differentiated ( P = 0.001) and ulcerated ( P < 0.001) tumors. A linear relationship between STMN1 score and tumor area, tumor thickness, and mitosis was found ( P = 0.001, P = 0.003, and P < 0.001, respectively). There was no statistically significant correlation between STMN1 and p53 scores. Our results support the previous view that STMN1 may be associated with some adverse clinicopathological and high-risk features of cSCC. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first and largest study to investigate STMN1 expression in cSCC, precancerous lesions of cSCC, and normal tissues.

Emerging role of microtubule-associated proteins on cancer metastasis

The major cause of death in cancer patients is strongly associated with metastasis. While much remains to be understood, microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) have shed light on metastatic progression’s molecular mechanisms. In this review article, we focus on the role of MAPs in cancer aggressiveness, particularly cancer metastasis activity. Increasing evidence has shown that a growing number of MAP member proteins might be fundamental regulators involved in altering microtubule dynamics, contributing to cancer migration, invasion, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. MAP types have been established according to their microtubule-binding site and function in microtubule-dependent activities. We highlight that altered MAP expression was commonly found in many cancer types and related to cancer progression based on available evidence. Furthermore, we discuss and integrate the relevance of MAPs and related molecular signaling pathways in cancer metastasis. Our review provides a comprehensive understanding of MAP function on microtubules. It elucidates how MAPs regulate cancer progression, preferentially in metastasis, providing substantial scientific information on MAPs as potential therapeutic targets and prognostic markers for cancer management.

CARMA3 Transcriptional Regulation of STMN1 by NF-κB Promotes Renal Cell Carcinoma Proliferation and Invasion

CARD-containing MAGUK protein 3 (CARMA3) is associated with tumor occurrence and progression. However, the signaling pathways involved in CARMA3 function remain unclear. We aimed to analyze the association between CARMA3 and stathmin (STMN1) through the NF-κB pathway, which is associated with cell proliferation and invasion, in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). We evaluated the effects of CARMA3 and STMN1 expression on cell migration, proliferation, and invasion in various cell lines, and their expression in tissue samples from patients with ccRCC. CARMA3 was highly expressed in ccRCC tissues and cell lines. Moreover, CARMA3 promoted the proliferation and invasion of RCC cells by activating the NF-κB pathway to transcribe STMN1. Stathmin exhibited a consistent profile with CARMA3 in ccRCC tissue, and could be an effector for CARMA3-activated cell proliferation and invasion of ccRCC cells. In summary, CARMA3 may serve as a promising target for ccRCC treatment.

PRER: A patient representation with pairwise relative expression of proteins on biological networks

Changes in protein and gene expression levels are often used as features in predictive modeling such as survival prediction. A common strategy to aggregate information contained in individual proteins is to integrate the expression levels with the biological networks. In this work, we propose a novel patient representation where we integrate proteins’ expression levels with the protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks: Patient representation with PRER (Pairwise Relative Expressions with Random walks). PRER captures the dysregulation patterns of proteins based on the neighborhood of a protein in the PPI network. Specifically, PRER computes a feature vector for a patient by comparing the source protein’s expression level with other proteins’ levels that are within its neighborhood. The neighborhood of the source protein is derived by biased random-walk strategy on the network. We test PRER’s performance in survival prediction task in 10 different cancers using random forest survival models. PRER yields a statistically significant predictive performance in 9 out of 10 cancers when compared to the same model trained with features based on individual protein expressions. Furthermore, we identified the pairs of proteins that their interactions are predictive of patient survival but their individual expression levels are not. The set of identified relations provides a valuable collection of protein biomarkers with high prognostic value. PRER can be used for other complex diseases and prediction tasks that use molecular expression profiles as input. PRER is freely available at: https://github.com/hikuru/PRER.

Cancer remains to be one of the most prevalent and challenging diseases to treat. Cancer is a complex disease with several disrupted molecular mechanisms at play. The protein expression level is a fundamental indicator of how the molecular mechanisms are altered in each tumor. Predicting patient survival based on the changes is essential for understanding the cancer mechanisms and arriving at patient-specific treatment plans. For this task, existing machine learning models are used, such as random survival forest, which requires a feature-based representation of each patient based on her tumors. Most of these models use the individual molecular quantities of the tumors. However, cancer is a complex disease in which molecular mechanisms are dysregulated in various ways. In this work, we present a new patient representation scheme in which we integrate each tumor’s protein expression levels with their neighboring proteins’ expression levels in a protein-protein interaction network to capture patient-specific dysregulation patterns. Our results suggest that proteins’ relative expressions are more predictive than their individual expressions. We also analyze which of the protein interactions are more predictive of patient survival. The identified set of important protein interactions can be potentially used for cancer prognosis.

A glycolysis-related gene signature predicts prognosis of patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

Background: Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is a growing problem with a rapidly rising incidence and carries a poor prognosis. We aimed to develop a glycolysis-related gene signature to predict the prognostic outcome of patients with EAC.

Results: Five genes (CLDN9, GFPT1, HMMR, RARS and STMN1) were correlated with prognosis of EAC patients. Patients were classified into high-risk and low-risk groups calculated by Cox regression analysis, based on the five gene signature risk score. The five-gene signature was an independent biomarker for prognosis and patients with low risk scores showed better prognosis. Nomogram incorporating the gene signature and clinical prognostic factors was effective in predicting the overall survival.

Conclusion: An innovative identified glycolysis-related gene signature and an effective nomogram reliably predicted the prognosis of EAC patients.

Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas database was investigated for the gene expression profile of EAC patients. Glycolytic gene sets difference between EAC and normal tissues were identified via Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis were utilized to construct a prognostic gene signature. The signature was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curves and Kaplan–Meier curves. A prognosis model integrating clinical parameters with the gene signature was established with nomogram.

Complementary multiple hydrogen-bond-based magnetic composite microspheres for high coverage and efficient phosphopeptide enrichment in bio-samples

Due to the number of phosphorylation sites, mono- and multiple-phosphopeptides exhibit significantly different biological effects. Therefore, comprehensive profiles of mono- and multiple-phosphopeptides are vital for the analysis of these biological and pathological processes. However, the most commonly used affinity materials based on metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) show stronger selectivity toward mono-phosphopeptides, thus losing most information on multiple-phosphopeptides. Herein, we report polymer functionalized magnetic nanocomposite microspheres as an ideal platform to efficiently enrich both mono- and multiple-phosphopeptides from complex biological samples. Driven by complementary multiple hydrogen bonding interactions, the composite microspheres exhibited remarkable performance for phosphopeptide enrichment from model proteins and real bio-samples. Excellent selectivity (the molar ratio of nonphosphopeptides/phosphopeptides was 5000 : 1), high enrichment sensitivity (2 fmol) and coverage, as well as high capture rates of multiple-phosphopeptides revealed their great potential in comprehensive phosphoproteomics studies. More importantly, we successfully captured the cancer related phosphopeptides (from the phosphoprotein Stathmin-1) and identified their relevant phosphorylation sites from oral carcinoma patients' saliva and tissue lysate, demonstrating the potential of this material for phosphorylated disease marker detection and discovery.

The Global Phosphorylation Landscape of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

The causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, highlighting an urgent need to develop antiviral therapies. Here we present a quantitative mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics survey of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Vero E6 cells, revealing dramatic rewiring of phosphorylation on host and viral proteins. SARS-CoV-2 infection promoted casein kinase II (CK2) and p38 MAPK activation, production of diverse cytokines, and shutdown of mitotic kinases, resulting in cell cycle arrest. Infection also stimulated a marked induction of CK2-containing filopodial protrusions possessing budding viral particles. Eighty-seven drugs and compounds were identified by mapping global phosphorylation profiles to dysregulated kinases and pathways. We found pharmacologic inhibition of the p38, CK2, CDK, AXL, and PIKFYVE kinases to possess antiviral efficacy, representing potential COVID-19 therapies.

Investigating proteome changes between primary and metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma using SWATH mass spectrometry

BACKGROUND

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is a common malignancy worldwide and the first as the cause of death from keratinocytic carcinomas. Around 5% of primary cSCCs metastasize, leading to a 5-year survival rate of only 11 %.

OBJECTIVE

This paper aims to investigate the proteome profile of primary and metastatic cSCC lesions for the identification of potential diagnostic biomarkers and molecular alterations.

METHODS

Liquid chromatography coupled with SWATH-MS workflow was used to analyse the proteome profile of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples of primary (n = 20) and metastatic cSCC (n = 25) lesions. Statistical and bioinformatics analysis was performed to identify differentially abundant proteins and molecular alterations between the lesions.

RESULTS

A total of 5037 proteins were identified across the samples of which 19 proteins including ISG15, APOA1 and MARCKS with roles in metastasis were increased and 11 proteins including DMKN, APCS and CST6 decreased in metastatic cSCC lesions relative to the primary phenotypes (adj. p-value <0.05). The proteomic data separated the lesions based on their histopathological diagnosis. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that cell migration, cell survival and immune response are likely activated, and apoptosis is inhibited in metastatic cSCC lesions, indicating increased lesion complexity as the disease progresses from primary to the metastatic phenotype. Two samples were reclassified after PCA analysis.

CONCLUSION

SWATH-MS analysis identified important molecular changes between primary and metastatic cSCC samples. Exploring these findings further will allow their translation into the clinic for improved tumour diagnosis, staging and therapeutic intervention.

Stathmin expression associates with vascular and immune responses in aggressive breast cancer subgroups

Studies indicate that stathmin expression associates with PI3K activation in breast cancer, suggesting stathmin as a marker for targetable patient subgroups. Here we assessed stathmin in relation to tumour proliferation, vascular and immune responses, BRCA1 germline status, basal-like differentiation, clinico-pathologic features, and survival. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on breast cancers from two series (cohort 1, n = 187; cohort 2, n = 198), and mass spectrometry data from 24 cases and 12 breast cancer cell lines was examined for proteomic profiles. Open databases were also explored (TCGA, METABRIC, Oslo2 Landscape cohort, Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia). High stathmin expression associated with tumour proliferation, p53 status, basal-like differentiation, BRCA1 genotype, and high-grade histology. These patterns were confirmed using mRNA data. Stathmin mRNA further associated with tumour angiogenesis, immune responses and reduced survival. By logistic regression, stathmin protein independently predicted a BRCA1 genotype (OR 10.0, p = 0.015) among ER negative tumours. Cell line analysis (Connectivity Map) implied PI3K inhibition in tumours with high stathmin. Altogether, our findings indicate that stathmin might be involved in the regulation of tumour angiogenesis and immune responses in breast cancer, in addition to tumour proliferation. Cell data point to potential effects of PI3K inhibition in tumours with high stathmin expression.

lncRNA UCA1 Increases Proliferation and Multidrug Resistance of Retinoblastoma Cells Through Downregulating miR-513a-5p

Chemoresistance is one of the major obstacles for cancer therapy. Abnormal expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) was broadly implicated in chemoresistance of multiple cancers. This study was aimed to investigate the function of urothelial cancer associated 1 (UCA1) in multidrug resistance of retinoblastoma and its potential molecular mechanism. In this study, we observed that UCA1 was significantly upregulated in chemoresistant retinoblastoma tissues and multidrug resistant retinoblastoma cell lines and predicted an unfavorable overall survival. Functionally, knockdown of UCA1 remarkably inhibited proliferation and sensitized retinoblastoma cells to multiple chemotherapy drugs, including vincristine (VCR), carboplatin (CBP), cisplatin (DDP), VP-16 (etoposide), and 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu). Mechanistic studies demonstrated that UCA1 functioned as a miRNA sponge to increase stathmin 1 (STMN1) expression through sponging miR-513a-5p. In addition, silence of miR-513a-5p or STMN1 overexpression could partly reverse UCA1 knockdown-induced inhibitory effects on proliferation and multidrug resistance of retinoblastoma cells. Overall, this study is the first to demonstrate that UCA1 plays a critical role in retinoblastoma chemoresistance, and UCA1 may serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target of retinoblastoma.

Exosomes in esophageal cancer: A review on tumorigenesis, diagnosis and therapeutic potential

Exosomes are nanovesicles secreted from various types of cells and can be isolated from various bodily fluids, such as blood and urine. The number and molecular contents, including proteins and RNA of exosomes, have been shown to reflect their parental cell origins, characteristics and biological behaviors. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that exosomes play a role in the course of tumorigenesis, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, although its precise functions in tumors are still unclear. Moreover, owing to a lack of a standard approach, exosomes and its contents have not yet been put into clinical practice successfully. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge on exosomes and its contents in esophageal cancer as well as the current limitations/challenges in its clinical application, which may provide a basis for an all-around understanding of the implementation of exosomes and exosomal contents in the surveillance and therapy of esophageal cancer.

Association of STMN1 with survival in solid tumors: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The prognostic value of Stathmin 1 (STMN1) in malignant solid tumors remains controversial. Thus, we conducted this meta-analysis to summarize the potential value of STMN1 as a biomarker for predicting overall survival in patients with solid tumor.

METHODS

We systematically searched eligible studies in PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE from the establishment date of these databases to September 2018. Hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association between STMN1 expression and overall survival.

RESULTS

A total of 25 studies with 4625 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Our combined results showed that high STMN1 expression was associated with poor overall survival in solid tumors (HR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.55, 2.21). In general, our subgroup and sensitivity analyses demonstrated that our combined results were stable and reliable. However, from the results of the subgroups we found that high STMN1 expression was not related to overall survival in colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer anymore, suggesting that much caution should be taken to interpret our combined result, and more studies with large sample sizes are required to further explore the prognostic value of STMN1 expression in the specific type of tumors, especially colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer.

CONCLUSIONS

STMN1 could serve as a prognostic biomarker and could be developed as a valuable therapeutic target for patients with solid tumors. However, due to the limitations of the present meta-analysis, this conclusion should be taken with caution. Further studies adequately designed are required to confirm our findings.