Significance of serum neural precursor cell-expressed developmentally downregulated protein 9 in melanoma

Circulating NEDD9 is increased in pulmonary arterial hypertension: A multicenter, retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a highly morbid disease characterized by elevated pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and pathogenic right ventricular remodeling. Endothelial expression of the prometastatic protein NEDD9 is increased in fibrotic PAH arterioles, and NEDD9 inhibition decreases PVR in experimental PAH. We hypothesized that circulating NEDD9 is increased in PAH and informs the clinical profile of patients.

METHODS

Clinical data and plasma samples were analyzed retrospectively for 242 patients from 5 referral centers (2010-2017): PAH (n = 139; female 82%, 58 [48-67] years), non-PAH pulmonary hypertension (PH) (n = 54; female 56%, 63.4 ± 12.2 years), and dyspnea non-PH controls (n = 36; female 75%, 54.2 ± 14.0 years).

RESULTS

Compared with controls, NEDD9 was increased in PAH by 1.82-fold (p < 0.0001). Elevated NEDD9 correlated with PVR in idiopathic PAH (ρ = 0.42, p < 0.0001, n = 54), connective tissue disease (CTD)-PAH (ρ = 0.53, p < 0.0001, n = 53), and congenital heart disease-PAH (ρ = 0.68, p < 0.0001, n = 10). In CTD-PAH, NEDD9 correlated with 6-minute walk distance (ρ = -0.35, p = 0.028, n = 39). In contrast to the PAH biomarker N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (n = 38), NEDD9 correlated inversely with exercise pulmonary artery wedge pressure and more strongly with right ventricular ejection fraction (ρ = -0.41, p = 0.006, n = 45) in a mixed population. The adjusted hazard ratio for lung transplant-free survival was 1.12 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.22, p = 0.01) and 1.75 (95% CI, 1.12-2.73, p = 0.01) per 1 ng/ml and 5 ng/ml increase in plasma NEDD9, respectively, by Cox proportional hazard model.

CONCLUSIONS

In PAH, plasma NEDD9 is increased and associates with key prognostic variables. Prospective studies that include hard end points are warranted to validate NEDD9 as a novel PAH biomarker.

NEDD9 overexpression predicts poor prognosis in solid cancers: a meta-analysis

Background: The oncogenicity of neural precursor cell-expressed developmentally down-regulated 9 (NEDD9) has been demonstrated in multiple cancer types. However, the prognostic value of NEDD9 in some solid cancers remains controversial. Thus, this meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship between NEDD9 expression survival rates in solid tumors.

Method: Our meta-analysis included studies searched from various search engines with specific inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. Combined HRs for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) or progression-free survival (PFS) or recurrence-free survival (RFS) or cancer-specific survival (CSS) were assessed using fixed-effects and random-effects models. The source of heterogeneity was identified by subgroup analysis. Additionally, publication bias was assessed using funnel plot and Egger’s regression asymmetry test.

Result: Eighteen studies with a total of 2,476 patients were retrieved for analysis. Pooled HRs and 95% CIs were calculated. Both OS (HR=1.82; 95% CI: 1.43–2.31) and DFS/PFS/RFS/CSS (HR=2.54; 95% CI: 1.93–3.33) indicated that NEDD9 overexpression is associated with poor OS in cancer patients with solid tumors.

Conclusion: NEDD9 overexpression might be a potential marker to predict prognosis in solid cancer patients.