Matrix Metalloproteinase 14 Overexpression Is Correlated with the Progression and Poor Prognosis of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Study on the Drug Targets and Molecular Mechanisms of Rhizoma Curcumae in the Treatment of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Based on Network Pharmacology

Aim

To analyse the target of Rhizoma Curcumae in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by using network pharmacological techniques and to explore the associated molecular mechanism.

Methods

The targets of nasopharyngeal carcinoma were retrieved from the GeneCards database. At the same time, the drug therapeutic targets of Rhizoma Curcumae were obtained from the TCMSP and SymMap databases. The data were imported into the STRING database and Cytoscape 3.7.1 to construct a network of “Chinese medicine component-target-disease” interactions; then, the intersection was screened as the core Rhizoma Curcumae antinasopharyngeal cancer targets. Through GO target function and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of the core targets, we predicted the biological processes and key signalling pathways involved in the Rhizoma Curcumae treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Results

Twenty-five core targets of Rhizoma Curcumae in nasopharyngeal carcinoma were mined: TP53, BCL2 ICAM1 RXRA, TLR3 and TLR9, TNF, PTGS2, IL-6, CTSD, MMP2, MMP9, MMP14, TIMP2, ABCC1, ABCB1, ABCG2, and so on. The results of visual analysis showed that the Rhizoma Curcumae treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma mainly involves leukocyte adhesion to vascular endothelial cells, positive regulation of NF-κB import into the nucleus, regulation of the reactive oxygen species biosynthetic and metabolic process, regulation of the chemokine biosynthetic and metabolic process, various cancer-related signalling pathways, and a variety of cytokine signal transduction pathways, such as the NF-κB, TLR, IL-17, and TNF signalling pathways.

Conclusion

The core targets predicted by our research can be used as molecular markers for the treatment and prediction of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The mechanism of Rhizoma Curcumae treatment in NPC may be related to immune regulatory pathways, the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenesis, as well as the regulation of tumour microenvironment. Combined with the prediction of its associated mechanism of action, the core targets can provide targeted reference value for subsequent drug development related to Curcuma.

High MMP14 expression is predictive of poor prognosis in resectable hepatocellular carcinoma

Matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14) has been found to play multiple biological roles in cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Up to now, its expression, clinicopathological and prognostic implications in HCC have not been comprehensively investigated. In the present study, MMP14 expression was detected, using tissue microarray-based immunohistochemical staining, in paired HCC and adjacent liver (AL) samples from 260 patients who underwent radical hepatectomy. The associations of MMP14 staining H-scores with clinicopathological parameters, overall and disease-free survival were then evaluated. Finally, its expression and prognostic value were confirmed in some online publicly available databases. It was shown that MMP14 expression was significantly higher in HCC than in AL tissues (p=0.035). Furthermore, MMP14 expression correlated positively with tumour size, Edmondson-Steiner grade and α-fetoprotein level (p<0.05). For survival, MMP14 expression was negatively associated with both overall and disease-free survival in univariate analyses (p<0.05), while it remained statistically significant for disease-free survival by multivariate Cox regression test. In the Ualcan and Kaplan-Meier Plotter databases, MMP14 was also revealed to be overexpressed and prognostic. Taken together, our study indicated that high MMP14 expression was predictive for unfavourable biological behaviours and long-term prognosis in resectable HCC.

Matrix metalloproteinase-14 induces epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in synovial sarcoma

Synovial sarcoma (SS) is a highly aggressive malignant soft tissue sarcoma with typical characteristics of both epithelial and mesenchymal differentiation. Matrix metalloproteinase-14 (MMP-14) is reported to play an important role in some of these tumors. It induces epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in some carcinomas, such as breast and prostate cancers. However, the role of MMP-14 in the pathogenesis of SS remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the role of MMP-14 and EMT/mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition in SS. The expression of MMP-14 and EMT-related proteins was determined in 37 SS cases and transfected cells by immunohistochemistry staining and Western blotting. The invasion ability of transfected cells was determined by transwell invasion assay. The expression rates of MMP-14, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and vimentin were 75.7%, 54.1%, 75.7%, and 100%, respectively, in the cases of SS. The expression of MMP-14 correlated negatively with E-cadherin and positively with N-cadherin in monophasic fibrous SS. The MMP-14 protein expression was higher in stage III/IV than in stage I/II. After MMP-14 was transfected into SW982 cells, MMP-14, N-cadherin, and vimentin expression was up-regulated, and E-cadherin expression was down-regulated. High expression of MMP-14 enhanced the invasive ability of SW982 cells. Our findings suggest that MMP-14 enhances the invasive ability of SW982 cells by inducing EMT. By this action, it may play an important role in the occurrence and development of SS.

Upregulation of cyclin-dependent kinase 7 and matrix metalloproteinase-14 expression contribute to metastatic properties of gastric cancer

The aim of this study was to evaluate the protein and mRNA expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-14 (MMP14) and CDK7 in gastric cancer (GC) tissues. Upregulation of MMP14 mRNA level was observed in GC tissues when compared with the matched normal tissues (mean ± SD: 3.92 ± 1.15 vs. 1.35 ± 0.81, P < 0.001). This study indicated that mRNA levels of CDK7 were statistically overexpressed in GC when compared with matched normal tissues (4.12 ± 0.84 vs. 1.43 ± 0.71, P < 0.001). The protein levels of MMP14 were found to be increased in GC (60.41%; P < 0.001). The expression of CDK7 was higher in GC tissues than matched normal tissues (70.83; P < 0.001). We found that high MMP14 expression was related to advanced TNM stage (P = 0.004), tumor grade (P = 0.002), and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.015), but no association with other clinical variables (P > 0.05). In addition, high expression of CDK7 was significantly linked to advanced TNM stage (P = 0.001), pathological grade (P = 0.012), and presence of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.009), while no correlation between CDK7 expression and other clinical variables, such as age and gender, distance metastasis. The patients with high expression of MMP14 and CDK7 exhibited worse survival time than those with higher levels. Cox multivariate regression analysis clearly showed that high expression of MMP14 and CDK7 was independent prognostic factors for overall survival in patients with GC. Taken together, these results indicated the overexpression of above markers in the progression and the tumorigenesis of GC and overall patient survival. © 2016 IUBMB Life, 68(10):799-805, 2016.