The prognostic gene CRABP2 affects drug sensitivity by regulating docetaxel-induced apoptosis in breast invasive carcinoma: A pan-cancer analysis

Breast cancer drug resistance: Decoding the roles of Hippo pathway crosstalk

The most significant factors that lead to cancer-related death in breast cancer (BC) patients include drug resistance, migration, invasion, and metastasis. Several signaling pathways are involved in the development of BC. The different types of BC are initially sensitive to chemotherapy, and drug resistance can occur through multiple molecular mechanisms. Regardless of developing targeted Therapy, due to the heterogenic nature and complexity of drug resistance, it is a major clinical challenge with the low survival rate in BC patients. The deregulation of several signaling pathways, particularly the Hippo pathway (HP), is one of the most recent findings about the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in BC, which are summarized in this review. Given that HP is one of the recent cancer research hotspots, this review focuses on its implication in BC drug resistance. Unraveling the different molecular basis of HP through its crosstalk with other signaling pathways, and determining the effectiveness of HP inhibitors can provide new insights into possible therapeutic strategies for overcoming chemoresistance in BC.

CRABP2 reduces the sensitivity of Olaparib in ovarian cancer by downregulating Caspase-8 and decreasing the production of reactive oxygen species

Poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, such as Olaparib, have been pivotal in treating BRCA-deficient ovarian cancer. However, their efficacy is limited in over 40% of BRCA-deficient patients, with acquired resistance posing new clinical challenges. To address this, we employed bioinformatics methods to identify key genes impacting Olaparib sensitivity in ovarian cancer. Through comprehensive analysis of public databases including GEO, CPTAC, Kaplan Meier Plotter, and CCLE, we identified CRABP2 as significantly upregulated at both mRNA and protein levels in ovarian cancer, correlating with poor prognosis and decreased Olaparib sensitivity. Using colony formation and CCK-8 assays, we confirmed that CRABP2 knockdown in OVCAR3 and TOV112D cells enhanced sensitivity to Olaparib. Additionally, 4D label-free quantitative proteomics analysis, GSEA, and GO/KEGG analysis revealed CRABP2's involvement in regulating oxidation signals. Flow cytometry, colony formation assays, and western blotting demonstrated that CRABP2 knockdown promoted ROS production by activating Caspase-8, thereby augmenting Olaparib sensitivity and inhibiting ovarian cancer cell proliferation. Moreover, in xenograft models, CRABP2 knockdown significantly suppressed tumorigenesis and enhanced Olaparib sensitivity, with the effect being reversed upon Caspase-8 knockdown. These findings suggest that CRABP2 may modulate Olaparib sensitivity in ovarian cancer through the Caspase-8/ROS axis, highlighting its potential as a target for Olaparib sensitization.

Distinct roles of CD244 expression in cancer diagnosis and prognosis: A pan-cancer analysis

The abnormal expression of tumor associated genes in pan-cancer is closely related to the clinicopathological features of distinct cancer types. Thus, identifying the role of specific genes in pan-cancer is needed for developing effective anti-cancer strategies. However, the function of CD244 in pan-cancer has not been fully understood. In this study, we explored the CD244 expression profile across 33 tumor types based on The Cancer Genome Atlas project, the Gene Expression Omnibus database, and other bioinformatics tools. We found down-regulated expression levels in seven tumor types and up-regulated expression levels in two tumor types. We subsequently explored the relationship between survival rate and CD244 expression, and found the positive relationship in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM), and uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC). We further investigated the association between CD244 expression and tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and discovered their positive correlation in different tumors. We found that CD244 expression level was higher in normal samples than in UCEC samples, and was positively associated with CD8+ T cells infiltrating. The mutation status, promoter methylation, CD244-related molecules and signaling pathways were also employed to study the potential function of CD244 in tumor initiation and progression. Our study offers a comprehensive overview of CD244 in human tumors, revealing CD244 as a potential prognostic biomarker and immunotherapeutic target in cancers.

CRABP2 affects chemotherapy resistance of ovarian cancer by regulating the expression of HIF1α

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal malignancy among gynecologic cancers, and primary and secondary chemotherapy resistance is one of the important reasons for poor prognosis of ovarian cancer patients. However, the specifics of resistance to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer remain unclear. Herein, we find that the expression level of cellular retinoic acid binding protein 2 (CRABP2) is up-regulated in drug-resistant ovarian cancer tissues and cell lines, and the expression levels of CRABP2 in epithelial ovarian cancer tissues are closely related to tumor clinical stage and patients' prognosis, suggesting that CRABP2 plays an important role in the progression of ovarian cancer and the corresponding ability of tumor to chemotherapy. With the in-depth study, we demonstrates that CRABP2 is related to the high metabolic activity in drug-resistant cells, and all-trans retinoic acid exacerbates this activity. Further molecular mechanism exploration experiments show that CRABP2 not only up-regulates the expression level of HIF1α, but also increases the localization of HIF1α in the nucleus. In drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells, knocking down HIF1α can block the resistance of CRABP2 to chemotherapy drugs in ovarian cancer cells. Taken together, our findings suggest for the first time that CRABP2 affects chemotherapy resistance of ovarian cancer by regulating the expression of HIF1α. This study provides a possible molecular mechanism for drug resistance and a possible molecular target for clinical treatment of ovarian cancer.