Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N OW8, Canada.
Cancers (Basel). 2011 Mar 16;3(1):1372-82. doi: 10.3390/cancers3011372.
Colon cancer is one of the most common malignant diseases and a major cause of mortality in the Western world. Metastasis to lymph nodes and other gastrointestinal organs, especially to the liver and lungs, is most common and occurs in up to 25% of cancer patients when initially diagnosed. The majority of colon cancers develop from noncancerous adenomatous polyps on the lining of the colon which grow over the years to become cancerous. If detected early, the surgical resections of the growth, often in combination with chemotherapy, significantly increases life expectancy. We have shown that the enzyme N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) which carries out lipid modification of several proteins (including many of those involved in oncogenesis) is expressed at higher levels in cancerous tissues from the colon. We have also shown that in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and bone marrow (BM) cells collected from colon cancer patients and from azoxymethane-induced rats the expression and localization of NMT is altered. We have observed strong positivity for NMT in immunohistochemical analysis for PBMC from colon cancer patients as compared to control groups. Furthermore, in the bone marrow (BM) mononuclear cells, NMT was found to be confined to the nuclei whereas in control groups it was observed to be located in the cytoplasm. In conclusion, this strikingly differential localization offers the basis of a potential investigational tool for screening or diagnosis of individuals at risk for or suspected of having colon cancer.
结肠癌是最常见的恶性疾病之一，也是西方世界主要的死亡原因之一。淋巴结和其他胃肠道器官（尤其是肝脏和肺部）转移是最常见的，在最初诊断时，多达 25%的癌症患者会发生这种情况。大多数结肠癌是由结肠内层的非癌性腺瘤性息肉发展而来，这些息肉经过多年的生长变成癌性的。如果早期发现，对生长物进行手术切除，通常结合化疗，会显著提高预期寿命。我们已经表明，进行多种蛋白质（包括许多参与癌变的蛋白质）脂质修饰的酶 N-豆蔻酰转移酶（NMT）在结肠癌组织中的表达水平更高。我们还表明，在来自结肠癌患者和氧化偶氮甲烷诱导的大鼠的外周血单核细胞（PBMC）和骨髓（BM）细胞中，NMT 的表达和定位发生了改变。与对照组相比，我们在结肠癌患者的 PBMC 的免疫组织化学分析中观察到 NMT 的强阳性。此外，在骨髓（BM）单核细胞中，NMT 被发现局限于细胞核，而在对照组中，它被观察到位于细胞质中。总之，这种明显的差异定位为筛查或诊断有结肠癌风险或疑似结肠癌的个体提供了潜在的研究工具的基础。
