Cell cycle dysregulation with overexpression of KIF2C/MCAK is a critical event in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Xiaofeng Zuo; Peixin Meng; Yuxin Bao; Chuntao Tao; Yitao Wang; Xianjun Liu; Youquan Bu; Jiang Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.gendis.2021.05.003

Cell cycle dysregulation with overexpression of KIF2C/MCAK is a critical event in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Genes Dis. 2021 Jun 14;10(1):212-227. doi: 10.1016/j.gendis.2021.05.003. eCollection 2023 Jan.

Authors

Xiaofeng Zuo^{1

2

3}, Peixin Meng^{2

3}, Yuxin Bao^{1

2

3}, Chuntao Tao^{2

3}, Yitao Wang^{2

3}, Xianjun Liu^{2

3}, Youquan Bu^{2

3}, Jiang Zhu^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
³ Molecular Medicine and Cancer Research Center, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common malignant carcinoma of the head and neck, and the biological mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of NPC remain not fully understood. In the present study, we systematically analyzed four independent NPC transcriptomic datasets and focused on identifying the critical molecular networks and novel key hub genes implicated in NPC. We found totally 170 common overlapping differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the four NPC datasets. GO and KEGG pathway analysis revealed that cell cycle dysregulation is a critical event in NPC. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis identified a 15 hub-gene core network with overexpressed kinesin family member 2C (KIF2C) as a central regulator. Loss-of-function study demonstrated that knockdown of KIF2C significantly inhibited cell growth and cell motility, and delayed cell cycle progression, accompanied with dramatic mitotic defects in spindle formation in NPC cells. RNA-seq analysis revealed that KIF2C knockdown led to deregulation of various downstream genes. KIF2C could also regulate the AKT/mTOR pathways, and enhance paclitaxel sensitivity in NPC cells. Taken together, our results suggest that cell cycle dysregulation is a critical event during NPC pathogenesis and KIF2C is a novel key mitotic hub gene with therapeutic potential in NPC.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Cell cycle; KIF2C; Mitosis; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma.