Ziying Zhao, Yuan Chu, Anqi Feng, Shihan Zhang, Hao Wu, Zhaoxing Li, Mingchuang Sun, Li Zhang, Tao Chen, Meidong Xu
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is an aggressive disease with a poor prognosis, caused by the inactivation of critical cell growth regulators that lead to uncontrolled proliferation and increased malignancy. Although Serine/Threonine Kinase 3 (STK3), also known as Mammalian STE20-like protein kinase 2 (MST2), is a highly conserved kinase of the Hippo pathway, plays a critical role in immunomodulation, organ development, cellular differentiation, and cancer suppression, its phenotype and function in ESCC require further investigation. In this study, we report for the first time on the role of STK3 kinase and its activation condition in ESCC, as well as the mechanism and mediators of kinase activation.
Methods: In this study, we investigated the expression and clinical significance of STK3 in ESCC. We first used bioinformatics databases and immunohistochemistry to analyze STK3 expression in the ESCC patient cohort and conducted survival analysis. In vivo, we conducted a tumorigenicity assay using nude mouse models to demonstrate the phenotypes of STK3 kinase. In vitro, we conducted Western blot analysis, qPCR analysis, CO-IP, and immunofluorescence (IF) staining analysis to detect molecule expression, interaction, and distribution. We measured proliferation, migration, and apoptosis abilities in ESCC cells in the experimental groups using CCK-8 and transwell assays, flow cytometry, and EdU staining. We used RNA-seq to identify genes that were differentially expressed in ESCC cells with silenced STK3 or FOXO1. We demonstrated the regulatory relationship of the TP53INP1/P21 gene medicated by the STK3-FOXO1 axis using Western blotting and ChIP in vitro.
Results: We demonstrate high STK3 expression in ESCC tissue and cell lines compared to esophageal epithelium. Cellular ROS induces STK3 autophosphorylation in ESCC cells, resulting in upregulated p-STK3/4. STK3 activation inhibits ESCC cell proliferation and migration by triggering apoptosis and suppressing the cell cycle. STK3 kinase activation phosphorylates FOXO1Ser212, promoting nuclear translocation, enhancing transcriptional activity, and upregulating TP53INP1 and P21. We also investigated TP53INP1 and P21's phenotypic effects in ESCC, finding that their knockdown significantly increases tumor proliferation, highlighting their crucial role in ESCC tumorigenesis.
Conclusion: STK3 kinase has a high expression level in ESCC and can be activated by cellular ROS, inhibiting cell proliferation and migration. Additionally, STK3 activation-mediated FOXO1 regulates ESCC cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest by targeting TP53INP1/P21. Our research underscores the anti-tumor function of STK3 in ESCC and elucidates the mechanism underlying its anti-tumor effect on ESCC.
期刊介绍:
The Official Journal of the International Society for Cellular Oncology
Focuses on translational research
Addresses the conversion of cell biology to clinical applications
Cellular Oncology publishes scientific contributions from various biomedical and clinical disciplines involved in basic and translational cancer research on the cell and tissue level, technical and bioinformatics developments in this area, and clinical applications. This includes a variety of fields like genome technology, micro-arrays and other high-throughput techniques, genomic instability, SNP, DNA methylation, signaling pathways, DNA organization, (sub)microscopic imaging, proteomics, bioinformatics, functional effects of genomics, drug design and development, molecular diagnostics and targeted cancer therapies, genotype-phenotype interactions.
A major goal is to translate the latest developments in these fields from the research laboratory into routine patient management. To this end Cellular Oncology forms a platform of scientific information exchange between molecular biologists and geneticists, technical developers, pathologists, (medical) oncologists and other clinicians involved in the management of cancer patients.
In vitro studies are preferentially supported by validations in tumor tissue with clinicopathological associations.