Potential tumor suppressor NESG1 as an unfavorable prognosis factor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 6; no. 11; p. e27887
• Main Authors: Liu, Zhen, Luo, Weiren, Zhou, Ying, Zhen, Yan, Yang, Huiling, Yu, Xiaoli, Ye, Yanfen, Li, Xin, Wang, Hao, Jiang, Qinping, Zhang, Yajie, Yao, Kaitai, Fang, Weiyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 28.11.2011; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Aged; Biology; Carcinoma; Cell cycle; Cell growth; Cell Movement; Cell Proliferation; Cell survival; Comparative analysis; Cyclin A1 - metabolism; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21 - metabolism; Cytoskeletal Proteins; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Development and progression; Disease Progression; Disease-Free Survival; DNA; DNA methylation; DNA Methylation - genetics; DNA microarrays; Down-Regulation - genetics; Epidermal growth factor; Epigenetics; Epithelium; Female; Gastric cancer; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Genomes; Humans; Hyperplasia; Lung cancer; Lymphoma; Male; MAP kinase; MAP Kinase Signaling System; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Medicine; Melanoma; Metastasis; Methylation; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms - genetics; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms - metabolism; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms - pathology; Nasopharynx; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Pathology; Patients; Phase transitions; Phosphatase; Phosphorylation; Prognosis; Promoter Regions, Genetic - genetics; Proportional Hazards Models; Prostate cancer; Protein expression; Proteins; Proteins - genetics; Proteins - metabolism; Regression Analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Rodents; Senescence; Signaling; Stomach cancer; Survival; Survival analysis; Throat cancer; Tissues; Tumor suppressor genes; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0027887

Recently we identified nasopharyngeal epithelium specific protein 1 (NESG1) as a potential tumor suppressor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The purpose of this study is to investigate the involvement of NESG1 in tumor progression and prognosis of human NPC. NESG1 protein expression in NPC was examined. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier method. The effect of NESG1 on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were also investigated. NESG1 expression was downregulated in atypical hyperplasia and NPC samples compared to normal and squamous nasopharynx tissues. Reduced protein expression was negatively associated with the status of NPC progression. Patients with lower NESG1 expression had a shorter overall survival and disease-free time than did patients with higher NESG1 expression. Multivariate analysis suggested NESG1 expression as an independent prognostic indicator for NPC patient survival. Proliferation, migration, and invasion ability were significantly increased in cell lines following lentiviral-mediated shRNA suppression of NESG1 expression. Microarray analysis indicated that NESG1 participated in multiple pathways, including MAPK signaling and cell cycle regulation. Finally, DNA methylation microarray examination revealed a lack of hypermethylation at the NESG1 promoter, suggesting other mechanisms are involved in suppressing NESG1 expression in NPC. Our studies are the first to demonstrate that decreased NESG1 expression is an unfavorable prognostic factor for NPC.