MCTP1 increases the malignancy of androgen-deprived prostate cancer cells by inducing neuroendocrine differentiation and EMT

MCTP2 is a novel biomarker promoting tumor progression and nodal metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide. Among them, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has remarkable local invasiveness and lymph node metastasis and is frequently found at an advanced stage. The 5-year survival rate of OSCC has remained at approximately 50% for several decades, and there is an urgent need to identify molecular markers that are effective for early diagnosis and treatment. Multiple C2 transmembrane proteins (MCTPs) are C2 domain-containing proteins, with two subtypes in humans: MCTP1 and MCTP2. MCTP1 has been reported to exhibit tumor-promoting activity in several cancer types; however, the role of MCTP2 in cancer remains largely unknown. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis using big data from over 500 head and neck cancer cases registered in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), expression profiling of 63 OSCC samples, and in vitro functional assessment using cell lines to elucidate MCTP2 involvement in OSCC. Compared to normal oral mucosa, MCTP2 expression was elevated in OSCC, and its expression rate was significantly increased at both protein and mRNA levels in cases with lymph node metastasis. In vitro experiments using two OSCC cell lines demonstrated that MCTP2 may be involved in cancer cell migration, invasive capacity acquisition, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype. Furthermore, MCTP2 expression levels were upregulated by TGF-β1 in a concentration-dependent manner. These findings suggest that MCTP2 may serve as a novel marker of invasion and EMT in OSCC, with promising implications for developing new MCTP2-targeted diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for OSCC.

Proteomic hub proteins CDKN2B, TRAPPC2L, WFS1, and ARPP19 drive biochemical recurrence and metastatic progression in prostate cancer: Protein macromolecule action

The biological characteristics and metastasis mechanism of prostate cancer are complex, involving the important role of many proteins in cell transcriptional regulation. This study focused on the role of the proteomic hub proteins CDKN2B, TRAPPC2L, WFS1 and ARPP19 in the biochemical recurrence and metastasis progression of prostate cancer. Cross-platform transcriptome integration and differential expression analysis were used to evaluate transcriptome characteristics in a prostate cancer cohort. Functional enrichment analysis was performed by gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway annotation, and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to investigate cancer progression subtypes. It was found that prostate cancer progression showed significant transcriptome heterogeneity, and low-expression genes dominated. We reveal the important role of epithelial-immune interactions and inflammatory signaling in transcriptional remodeling in prostate cancer. The co-expression network topology analysis showed that the immune-metabolic center module plays a central role in cancer progression. CDKN2B was identified as a key transcriptional determinant in prostate cancer typing, while TRAPPC2L and WFS1 acted as core transcriptional regulators, driving metastatic heterogeneity. ARPP19 and LOC650152 also show important transcriptional driving effects in advanced prostate cancer.

Black phosphorus enabled non-invasive protein detection with electromagnetic induction well terahertz biosensor chips

Terahertz biosensors are employed to detect proteins in cancer cells to facilitate early diagnosis and monitoring of cancer treatments. By optimizing the design and functionality of black phosphorus-based sensors, it is possible to enhance their sensitivity and specificity for specific cancer biomarkers, leading to more accurate diagnostic outcomes. The application of the externally applied magnetic field and the 455 nm continuous-wave laser further augments the sensitivity of cellular responses to THz waves, with magnetic influences typically surpassing those of light fields by 10%-80%. Our results examine the photonic properties of black phosphorus, improve its interaction with terahertz waves, and create prototypes that can selectively identify proteins associated with cancer cells. Additionally, the stability and reproducibility of these sensors have been greatly improved, boosting their potential for widespread use in clinical environments.

Characterization of Epithelial-Mesenchymal and Neuroendocrine Differentiation States in Pancreatic and Small Cell Ovarian Tumor Cells and Their Modulation by TGF-β1 and BMP-7

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has an extremely poor prognosis, due in part to early invasion and metastasis, which in turn involves epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of the cancer cells. Prompted by the discovery that two PDAC cell lines of the quasi-mesenchymal subtype (PANC-1, MIA PaCa-2) exhibit neuroendocrine differentiation (NED), we asked whether NED is associated with EMT. Using real-time PCR and immunoblotting, we initially verified endogenous expressions of various NED markers, i.e., chromogranin A (CHGA), synaptophysin (SYP), somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2), and SSTR5 in PANC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 cells. By means of immunohistochemistry, the expressions of CHGA, SYP, SSTR2, and the EMT markers cytokeratin 7 (CK7) and vimentin could be allocated to the neoplastic ductal epithelial cells of pancreatic ducts in surgically resected tissues from patients with PDAC. In HPDE6c7 normal pancreatic duct epithelial cells and in epithelial subtype BxPC-3 PDAC cells, the expression of CHGA, SYP, and neuron-specific enolase 2 (NSE) was either undetectable or much lower than in PANC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 cells. Parental cultures of PANC-1 cells exhibit EM plasticity (EMP) and harbor clonal subpopulations with both M- and E-phenotypes. Of note, M-type clones were found to display more pronounced NED than E-type clones. Inducing EMT in parental cultures of PANC-1 cells by treatment with transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) repressed epithelial genes and co-induced mesenchymal and NED genes, except for SSTR5. Surprisingly, treatment with bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-7 differentially affected gene expressions in PANC-1, MIA PaCa-2, BxPC-3, and HPDE cells. It synergized with TGF-β1 in the induction of vimentin, SNAIL, SSTR2, and NSE but antagonized it in the regulation of CHGA and SSTR5. Phospho-immunoblotting in M- and E-type PANC-1 clones revealed that both TGF-β1 and, surprisingly, also BMP-7 activated SMAD2 and SMAD3 and that in M- but not E-type clones BMP-7 was able to dramatically enhance the activation of SMAD3. From these data, we conclude that in EMT of PDAC cells mesenchymal and NED markers are co-regulated, and that mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) is associated with a loss of both the mesenchymal and NED phenotypes. Analyzing NED in another tumor type, small cell carcinoma of the ovary hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT), revealed that two model cell lines of this disease (SCCOHT-1, BIN-67) do express CDH1, SNAI1, VIM, CHGA, SYP, ENO2, and SSTR2, but that in contrast to BMP-7, none of these genes was transcriptionally regulated by TGF-β1. Likewise, in BIN-67 cells, BMP-7 was able to reduce proliferation, while in SCCOHT-1 cells this occurred only upon combined treatment with TGF-β and BMP-7. We conclude that in PDAC-derived tumor cells, NED is closely linked to EMT and TGF-β signaling, which may have implications for the therapeutic use of TGF-β inhibitors in PDAC management.