Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2022; 14(10): 1949-1967
Published online Oct 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i10.1949
Overexpression of ELL-associated factor 2 suppresses invasion, migration, and angiogenesis in colorectal cancer
Ming-Liang Feng, Can Wu, Hui-Jing Zhang, Huan Zhou, Tai-Wei Jiao, Meng-Yuan Liu, Ming-Jun Sun
Ming-Liang Feng, Can Wu, Hui-Jing Zhang, Huan Zhou, Tai-Wei Jiao, Meng-Yuan Liu, Ming-Jun Sun, Department of Endoscopy, The First Hospital Affiliated to China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Feng ML and Wu C designed the research study; Zhang HJ and Jiao TW performed the research; Zhou H and Liu MY contributed new reagents and analytic tools; Feng ML and Sun MJ analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, No. 2019-BS-279.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University (Registration No. 2021-68-2).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ming-Jun Sun, Doctor, PhD, Chief Physician, Professor, Department of Endoscopy, The First Hospital Affiliated to China Medical University, No. 155 Nanjing North Street, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China. sunydyy@163.com
Received: May 19, 2022
Peer-review started: May 19, 2022
First decision: June 6, 2022
Revised: June 20, 2022
Accepted: September 21, 2022
Article in press: September 21, 2022
Published online: October 15, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The androgen responsive gene, ELL-associated factor 2 (EAF2), expressed in benign prostate tissues, has been shown to play an important role in tumor suppression in a variety of malignant tumors. In addition, some scholars found that EAF2 frameshift mutations are associated with intratumor heterogeneity in colorectal cancer (CRC) and inactivation of EAF2 in microsatellite instability-high CRC. However, the molecular mechanism by which EAF2 is involved in CRC invasion and metastasis remains unclear.

AIM

To determine the clinical value of expression of EAF2 protein in CRC, and to study the effects of EAF2 on the invasion, migration, and angiogenesis of CRC cells in vitro.

METHODS

In this study, we collected colorectal adenocarcinoma and corresponding adjacent tissues to investigate the clinical expression of EAF2 protein in patients with advanced CRC. Subsequently, we investigated the effect of EAF2 on the invasion, migration, and angiogenesis of CRC cells in vitro using plasmid transfection.

RESULTS

EAF2 protein was lowly expressed in cancer tissues of patients with advanced CRC. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the survival rate of the high EAF2 level group was higher than that of the low EAF2 level group.

CONCLUSION

Our results demonstrated that EAF2, as a tumor suppressor, may inhibit the invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis of CRC cells by regulating the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3/transforming growth factor-β1 crosstalk pathway, and play a cancer suppressive and protective role in the occurrence and development of CRC. Our findings are of great significance to provide a new idea and theoretical basis for the targeted diagnosis and treatment of CRC.

Keywords: ELL-associated factor 2, Transforming growth factor-β1, Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, Colorectal cancer, Invasion, Migration, Angiogenesis

Core Tip: Androgen-responsive gene ELL-associated factor 2 (EAF2) plays an important role in tumor suppression in a variety of malignant tumors. We found that EAF2 protein was lowly expressed in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the survival rate of the group with high EAF2 level was higher than that of the group with low EAF2 level. Moreover, EAF2 may play a tumor suppressive and protective role in CRC by inhibiting the invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis via regulating the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3/transforming growth factor beta 1 crosstalk pathway. Our findings are of great significance to provide a new idea and theoretical basis for targeting diagnosis and therapy of CRC.