Talin1 knockdown prohibits the proliferation and migration of colorectal cancer cells via the EMT signaling pathway

BCKDK regulates breast cancer cell adhesion and tumor metastasis by inhibiting TRIM21 ubiquitinate talin1

Breast cancer is the most common malignant cancer in women worldwide. Cancer metastasis is the major cause of cancer-related deaths. BCKDK is associated with various diseases, including proliferation, migration, and invasion in multiple types of human cancers. However, the relevance of BCKDK to the development and progression of breast cancers and its function is unclear. This study found that BCKDK was overexpressed in breast cancer, associated with poor prognosis, and implicated in tumor metastasis. The downregulation of BCKDK expression inhibited the migration of human breast cancer cells in vitro and diminished lung metastasis in vivo. BCKDK perturbed the cadherin-catenin complex at the adherens junctions (AJs) and assembled focal adhesions (FAs) onto the extracellular matrix, thereby promoting the directed migration of breast cancer cells. We observed that BCKDK acted as a conserved regulator of the ubiquitination of cytoskeletal protein talin1 and the activation of the FAK/MAPK pathway. Further studies revealed that BCKDK inhibited the binding of talin1 to E3 ubiquitin ligase-TRIM21, leading to the decreased ubiquitination/degradation of talin1. In conclusion, identifying BCKDK as a biomarker for breast cancer metastasis facilitated further research on diagnostic biomarkers. Elucidating the mechanism by which BCKDK exerted its biological effect could provide a new theoretical basis for developing new markers for breast cancer metastasis and contribute to developing new therapies for the clinical treatment of breast cancer patients.

The Association Between Higher Expression of Talin-1 and the Reduced Survival Rate in Ovarian Serous Carcinoma Patients

Background & Objective

Talin-1 is a constituent of the multiprotein adhesion complexes that play main role in the formation of tumors and migration in different types of malignancies. The present study aimed to assess expression and prognostic significance of the talin-1 protein in ovarian serous carcinoma (OSC) patients.

Methods

The expression of talin-1 in mRNA and its protein levels were investigated for ovarian cancer (OC) by using bioinformatics tools, including Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis 2 (GEPIA2), Gene Expression Database of Normal and Tumor Tissue 2 (GENT2), and The University of ALabama at Birmingham CANcer data analysis Portal (UALCAN) databases. Thereafter, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining was used to study the expression patterns of the talin-1 protein using 46 paraffin-embedded OSC tissue specimens, 25 benign tumors, and 20 normal tissues, which were assembled in tissue microarrays (TMAs). We also assessed the potential association between the expression of the talin-1 protein, various clinicopathological parameters, and survival outcomes.

Results

Our IHC examination for talin-1 was significantly overexpressed in OSC tissues compared to benign tumors and normal tissues. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis has also indicated statistically significant differences in terms of disease-specific survival (DSS) and progression-free survival (PFS) between the patients with high and low expression levels of talin-1, respectively.

Conclusion

The talin-1 protein was overexpressed in OSC tissues, and a high expression level of talin-1 was found to be significantly associated with tumor aggressiveness and poorer DSS or PFS. Therefore, talin-1 may serve as a molecular marker of cancer progression and a novel prognostic biomarker in these patients.

High expression of Talin-1 is associated with tumor progression and recurrence in melanoma skin cancer patients

BACKGROUND

Talin-1 as a component of multi-protein adhesion complexes plays a role in tumor formation and migration in various malignancies. This study investigated Talin-1 in protein levels as a potential prognosis biomarker in skin tumors.

METHODS

Talin-1 was evaluated in 106 skin cancer (33 melanomas and 73 non-melanomas skin cancer (NMSC)) and 11 normal skin formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples using immunohistochemical technique on tissue microarrays (TMAs). The association between the expression of Talin-1 and clinicopathological parameters, as well as survival outcomes, were assessed.

RESULTS

Our findings from data minings through bioinformatics tools indicated dysregulation of Talin-1 in mRNA levels for skin cancer samples. In addition, there was a statistically significant difference in Talin-1 expression in terms of intensity of staining, percentage of positive tumor cells, and H-score in melanoma tissues compared to NMSC (P = 0.001, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively). Moreover, high cytoplasmic expression of Talin-1 was found to be associated with significantly advanced stages (P = 0.024), lymphovascular invasion (P = 0.023), and recurrence (P = 0.006) in melanoma cancer tissues. Our results on NMSC showed a statistically significant association between high intensity of staining and the poor differentiation (P = 0.044). No significant associations were observed between Talin-1 expression levels and survival outcomes of melanoma and NMSC patients.

CONCLUSION

Our observations showed that higher expression of Talin1 in protein level may be significantly associated with more aggressive tumor behavior and advanced disease in patients with skin cancer. However, further studies are required to find the mechanism of action of Talin-1 in skin cancers.

Talin1 Induces Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition to Facilitate Endometrial Cell Migration and Invasion in Adenomyosis Under the Regulation of microRNA-145-5p

Adenomyosis (ADS) is a commonly encountered benign gynecological disorder. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) may serve a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of ADS. Talin1 has been identified to be implicated in multiple human carcinomas, probably through inducing EMT process. However, available data on the precise molecular mechanism of Talin1 in the pathogenesis of ADS remain extremely scanty. In the present study, we aim to investigate the clinical roles of Talin1 and its effects on uterine endometrial cell migration, invasion, and EMT in ADS. Relative mRNA expression of Talin1, microRNA-145-5p (miR-145-5p), and EMT-related markers was determined by qRT-PCR. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were performed to examine the distribution of Talin1 in ADS endometrium. Protein levels of Talin1, EMT-related markers, and wnt/β-catenin pathway were measured by western blot. Wound healing assay and transwell assay were utilized for evaluating cell migration and invasion respectively. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to verify the relationship between Talin1 and miR-145-5p. We found Talin1 was markedly overexpressed in ADS endometrial tissue and cells, whereas miR-145-5p was downregulated. Elevated Talin1 mRNA level might be closely related to some clinicopathological features of ADS. Through functional experiments, we demonstrated that overexpression of Talin1 induced EMT and enhanced migration and invasion ability of ADS eutopic and ectopic endometrial epithelial cells (ADS_Eu_EEC and ADS_Ec_EEC) in vitro through activating the canonical wnt/β-catenin pathway. From a mechanistic perspective, Talin1 was inversely regulated by miR-145-5p as a direct target. Our findings unveiled that under the regulation of miR-145-5p, Talin1 might promote endometrial cell migration and invasion through inducing EMT, presenting a novel insight for elucidating the pathogenesis of ADS.

Cancer associated talin point mutations disorganise cell adhesion and migration

Talin-1 is a key component of the multiprotein adhesion complexes which mediate cell migration, adhesion and integrin signalling and has been linked to cancer in several studies. We analysed talin-1 mutations reported in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer database and developed a bioinformatics pipeline to predict the severity of each mutation. These predictions were then assessed using biochemistry and cell biology experiments. With this approach we were able to identify several talin-1 mutations affecting integrin activity, actin recruitment and Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 localization. We explored potential changes in talin-1 signalling responses by assessing impact on migration, invasion and proliferation. Altogether, this study describes a pipeline approach of experiments for crude characterization of talin-1 mutants in order to evaluate their functional effects and potential pathogenicity. Our findings suggest that cancer related point mutations in talin-1 can affect cell behaviour and so may contribute to cancer progression.

Low expression of Talin1 is associated with advanced pathological features in colorectal cancer patients

To explore the proper prognostic markers for the likelihood of metastasis in CRC patients. Seventy-seven fresh CRC samples were collected to evaluate the mRNA level of the selected marker using Real-time PCR. Moreover, 648 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded CRC tissues were gathered to evaluate protein expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) on tissue microarrays. The results of Real-Time PCR showed that low expression of Talin1 was significantly associated with advanced TNM stage (p = 0.034) as well as gender (p = 0.029) in mRNA levels. Similarly, IHC results indicated that a low level of cytoplasmic expression of Talin1 was significantly associated with advanced TNM stage (p = 0.028) as well as gender (p = 0.009) in CRC patients. Moreover, decreased expression of cytoplasmic Talin1 protein was found to be a significant predictor of worse disease-specific survival (DSS) (p = 0.011) in the univariate analysis. In addition, a significant difference was achieved (p = 0.039) in 5-year survival rates of DSS: 65% for low, 72% for moderate, and 88% for high Talin1 protein expression. Observations showed that lower expression of Talin1 at both the gene and protein level may drive the disparity of CRC patients’ outcomes via worse DSS and provide new insights into the development of progression indicators because of its correlation with increased tumor aggressiveness.