V Up-Regulation of VCAN Promotes the Proliferation, Invasion and Migration and Serves as a Biomarker in Gastric Cancer

Ye Cheng; Hanzhi Sun; Liangliang Wu; Fan Wu; Weiwei Tang; Xiaowei Wang; Chengyu Lv

doi:10.2147/OTT.S262613

V Up-Regulation of VCAN Promotes the Proliferation, Invasion and Migration and Serves as a Biomarker in Gastric Cancer

Onco Targets Ther. 2020 Aug 25:13:8665-8675. doi: 10.2147/OTT.S262613. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ye Cheng^#¹, Hanzhi Sun^#¹, Liangliang Wu^#¹, Fan Wu¹, Weiwei Tang¹, Xiaowei Wang², Chengyu Lv¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery, Nanjing First Hospital, The Affiliated Nanjing Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Medical Oncology, The Affiliated Huaian No.1 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Huaian, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Versican (VCAN), a significant protein of extracellular matrix (ECM), is capable of accumulating in tumor stroma and critically impacts malignant transforming process and tumor progressing process. Promoted VCAN expression was identified in numerous malignant tumors and showed relationships to cancer relapse and ineffective breast, prostate, and many other cancer types of patients. Nevertheless, the molecular capability and prognosis importance exhibited by VCAN are infrequently presented in gastric cancer (GC).

Methods: According to 5 GC tissues and corresponding general tissues, mRNA expression profiles were taken here. VCAN expression in tissues was confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase reaction (qRT-PCR). The effect generated by VCAN expression on cell proliferating, invading and migrating processes was assessed in vitro with knockdown and overexpression strategies. Moreover, the relationships between immune response and VCAN expression in GC were assessed with the use of the software online.

Results: There are 181 genes up-regulated and 530 genes down-regulated in GC. According to pathway study, the mentioned differently expressed mRNAs showed correlations with a number of vital physiological processes, cellular components, molecular functions and critical cancer signal pathways. VCAN was reported to be noticeably promoted in GC tissues and related to individual cancer age, race, and stages. VCAN was up-regulated in 16 GC tissues compared to adjacent non-tumorous tissue specimens via qRT-PCR. GC patients exhibiting higher VCAN expression had less post-progression survival (PPS), first progression (FP) and overall survival (OS). Experimental processes in vitro revealed VCAN knockdown hindered, proliferated, invaded, and migrated levels of GC cells, whereas overexpression of VCAN played the opposite effect. Immune factors may interact with VCAN mRNA in GC, and VCAN was found noticeably linked with regulatory T cells (Tregs).

Conclusion: According to the mentioned results, VCAN critically impacts GC progression. Accordingly, VCAN is likely to be a potentially feasible prognosis marking element and a prominent cancer drug for GC patients.

Keywords: VCAN; gastric cancer; immune; invasion; prognosis.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Huai’an Natural Science Research Program HAB201805 for Xiaowei Wang.