TY - JOUR
T1 - Phosphoprotein enriched in diabetes (PED/PEA15) promotes migration in hepatocellular carcinoma and confers resistance to sorafenib
AU - Quintavalle, Cristina
AU - Hindupur, Sravanth Kumar
AU - Quagliata, Luca
AU - Pallante, Pierlorenzo
AU - Nigro, Cecilia
AU - Condorelli, Gerolama
AU - Andersen, Jesper Bøje
AU - Tagscherer, Katrin Elisabeth
AU - Roth, Wilfried
AU - Beguinot, Francesco
AU - Heim, Markus Hermann
AU - Ng, Charlotte Kiu Yan
AU - Piscuoglio, Salvatore
AU - Matter, Matthias Sebastian
PY - 2017/10/26
Y1 - 2017/10/26
N2 - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third-leading cause of cancer-related death with limited treatment options and frequent resistance to sorafenib, the only drug currently approved for first-line therapy. Therefore, better understanding of HCC tumor biology and its resistance to treatment is urgently needed. Here, we analyzed the role of phosphoprotein enriched in diabetes (PED) in HCC. PED has been shown to regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration in several types of cancer. However, its function in HCC has not been addressed yet. Our study revealed that both transcript and protein levels of PED were significantly high in HCC compared with non-tumoral tissue. Clinico-pathological correlation revealed that PED(high) HCCs showed an enrichment of gene signatures associated with metastasis and poor prognosis. Further, we observed that PED overexpression elevated the migration potential and PED silencing the decreased migration potential in liver cancer cell lines without effecting cell proliferation. Interestingly, we found that PED expression was regulated by a hepatocyte specific nuclear factor, HNF4α. A reduction of HNF4α induced an increase in PED expression and consequently, promoted cell migration in vitro. Finally, PED reduced the antitumoral effect of sorafenib by inhibiting caspase-3/7 activity. In conclusion, our data suggest that PED has a prominent role in HCC biology. It acts particularly on promoting cell migration and confers resistance to sorafenib treatment. PED may be a novel target for HCC therapy and serve as a predictive marker for treatment response against sorafenib.
AB - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third-leading cause of cancer-related death with limited treatment options and frequent resistance to sorafenib, the only drug currently approved for first-line therapy. Therefore, better understanding of HCC tumor biology and its resistance to treatment is urgently needed. Here, we analyzed the role of phosphoprotein enriched in diabetes (PED) in HCC. PED has been shown to regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration in several types of cancer. However, its function in HCC has not been addressed yet. Our study revealed that both transcript and protein levels of PED were significantly high in HCC compared with non-tumoral tissue. Clinico-pathological correlation revealed that PED(high) HCCs showed an enrichment of gene signatures associated with metastasis and poor prognosis. Further, we observed that PED overexpression elevated the migration potential and PED silencing the decreased migration potential in liver cancer cell lines without effecting cell proliferation. Interestingly, we found that PED expression was regulated by a hepatocyte specific nuclear factor, HNF4α. A reduction of HNF4α induced an increase in PED expression and consequently, promoted cell migration in vitro. Finally, PED reduced the antitumoral effect of sorafenib by inhibiting caspase-3/7 activity. In conclusion, our data suggest that PED has a prominent role in HCC biology. It acts particularly on promoting cell migration and confers resistance to sorafenib treatment. PED may be a novel target for HCC therapy and serve as a predictive marker for treatment response against sorafenib.
KW - Journal Article
U2 - 10.1038/cddis.2017.512
DO - 10.1038/cddis.2017.512
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 29072691
SN - 2041-4889
VL - 8
JO - Cell Death & Disease
JF - Cell Death & Disease
IS - 10
M1 - e3138
ER -