J Cancer 2020; 11(19):5601-5611. doi:10.7150/jca.46173 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, 13620, Republic of Korea.
2. Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03080, Republic of Korea.
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an intractable cancer that is difficult to diagnose early and has a 5-year survival rate of less than 8%. ZW10-interacting kinetochore protein (ZWINT) is a crucial gene that contributes to chromosome instability and is essential for spindle assembly and kinetochore-microtubule attachment during meiosis and mitosis. However, the mechanism through which Zwint-1 promotes PC progression is yet to be elucidated. Here, we report that Zwint-1 is highly expressed in clinical PC specimens (based on analysis of the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis database) and various PC cell lines. Importantly, Zwint-1-deficient PC cells showed reduced nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) (Ser536) phosphorylation along with inhibited proliferation and colony formation due to downregulation of NF-κB-regulated genes such as CCND1, cIAP1/2, and XIAP. In addition, Zwint-1-deficient PC cells showed reduced invasion and migration abilities, and decreased expression levels of the metalloproteinases MMP2 and MMP9. Furthermore, Zwint-1 deficiency arrested the PC cell cycle at the G2/M phase because the chromosomes failed to segregate properly, and the apoptosis rate in these cells gradually increased, accompanied by increased caspase-3 activation and anti-poly (ADP ribose) polymerase cleavage. Apoptosis caused by Zwint-1 deficiency was demonstrated to occur through caspase-dependent pathways based on experiments involving treatment with a pan-caspase inhibitor (Z-VAD-Fmk). Thus, Zwint-1 contributes to cell growth, invasion, and survival through NF-κB signaling pathways, suggesting that it could serve as a PC biomarker and new therapeutic target.
Keywords: Zwint-1, NF-κB, CCAN, KMN, RZZ, pancreatic cancer, cancer biology