Functional relationship between CFTR and RAC3 expression for maintaining cancer cell stemness in human colorectal cancer
Autor: | Gabriela Inés Marino, Mileni Soares Machado, Francisco Damián Rosa, Basilio A. Kotsias, Monica Alejandra Costas, Alejandra Graciela Palma, Maria Fernanda Rubio, María Cecilia Lira |
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Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
congenital hereditary and neonatal diseases and abnormalities Cancer Research education.field_of_study Colorectal cancer Population Cancer General Medicine Biology Stem cell marker medicine.disease Cystic fibrosis 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology 0302 clinical medicine Oncology Side population Cancer stem cell 030220 oncology & carcinogenesis Cancer cell Cancer research medicine Molecular Medicine education |
Zdroj: | Cellular Oncology. 44:627-641 |
ISSN: | 2211-3436 2211-3428 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s13402-021-00589-x |
Popis: | CFTR mutations not only cause cystic fibrosis, but also increase the risk of colorectal cancer. A putative role of CFTR in colorectal cancer patients without cystic fibrosis has so far, however, not been investigated. RAC3 is a nuclear receptor coactivator that has been found to be overexpressed in several human tumors, and to be required for maintaining cancer stemness. Here, we investigated the functional relationship between CFTR and RAC3 for maintaining cancer stemness in human colorectal cancer. Cancer stemness was investigated by analysing the expression of stem cell markers, clonogenic growth and selective retention of fluorochrome, using stable transfection of shCFTR or shRAC3 in HCT116 colorectal cancer cells. In addition, we performed pathway enrichment and network analyses in both primary human colorectal cancer samples (TCGA, Xena platform) and Caco-2 colorectal cancer cells including (1) CD133+ or CD133- side populations and (2) CFTRwt or CFTRmut cells (ConsensusPathDB, STRING, Cytoscape, GeneMANIA). We found that the CD133+ side population expresses higher levels of RAC3 and CFTR than the CD133- side population. RAC3 overexpression increased CFTR expression, whereas CFTR downregulation inhibited the cancer stem phenotype. CFTR mRNA levels were found to be increased in colorectal cancer samples from patients without cystic fibrosis compared to those with CFTR mutations, and this correlated with an increased expression of RAC3. The expression pattern of a gene set involved in inflammatory response and nuclear receptor modulation in CD133+ Caco-2 cells was found to be shared with that in CFTRwt Caco-2 cells. These genes may contribute to colorectal cancer development. CFTR may play a non-tumor suppressor role in colorectal cancer development and maintenance involving enhancement of the expression of a set of genes related to cancer stemness and development in patients without CFTR mutations. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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