MCTS1 promotes invasion and metastasis of oral cancer by modifying the EMT process

Zhexun Huang; Qiao Su; Wuguo Li; Hui Ren; Huiqiang Huang; Anxun Wang

doi:10.21037/atm-21-2361

MCTS1 promotes invasion and metastasis of oral cancer by modifying the EMT process

Ann Transl Med. 2021 Jun;9(12):997. doi: 10.21037/atm-21-2361.

Authors

Zhexun Huang¹, Qiao Su², Wuguo Li², Hui Ren¹, Huiqiang Huang^{3

4}, Anxun Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
² Animal Experiment Center, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou, China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: The oncogene, malignant T-cell-amplified sequence 1 (MCTS1), has been found to be highly expressed in a variety of cancer cell lines. It has been shown to be involved in cell cycle progression and to confer a growth advantage for lymphomas and breast cancer. Nevertheless, the role of MCTS1 in contributing to the development of oral cancer remains elusive.

Methods: We analyzed the gene expression profiles of MCTS1 in normal oral keratinocytes and cancerous cells. Cellular proliferation, invasion, and migration experiments were performed to detect the effect of MCTS1 on the biological evolution of oral cancer. The in vitro results were verified by the in vivo lymphatic metastasis test. The underlying mechanism of MCTS1 in promoting oral cancer invasion and metastasis correlated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process as revealed by western blotting.

Results: The results showed that MCTS1 was aberrantly expressed in oral cancer cells. MCTS1 overexpression significantly promoted tumor cell growth, proliferation, migration, and invasion. MCTS1-mediated lymphatic metastasis was verified in vivo using an intraplantar tumor model. Biomarkers associated with EMT progression were positively or negatively regulated upon knockdown or overexpression of MCTS1, respectively.

Conclusions: Higher MCTS1 expression in oral cancer may be connected with an unfavorable prognosis due to involvement of MCTS1. MCTS1 potentiates the growth and proliferation of oral cancer cells and subsequent metastasis by regulating cell cycle and modifying the EMT process.

Keywords: Oral cancer; oncogene; malignant T-cell-amplified sequence 1 (MCTS1); metastasis; invasion.