Ning Zhen, Wang Aman, Liang Jinxiao, Liu Jiwei, Zhou Tao, Yan Qiu, Wang Zhongyu
Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University Dalian, China.
Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University Dalian, China.
Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2014 Apr 15;7(5):2462-9. eCollection 2014.
Nek2 is a serine/threonine kinase that has a critical role in mitosis during the cell division process. Despite its importance in centrosome regulation and spindle formation, no direct binders are reported between human pancreatic cancer and Nek2 protein. Our aim in studying Nek2 expression and survival in PDA patients is to determine whether Nek2 is a valuable prognostic factor in PDA tumorigenesis. We found that Nek2 mRNA was elevated in PDA tissues. A high level of expression of Nek2 was significantly correlated with histological differentiation (P=0.042), lymph node metastasis (P=0.003) and tumor stage (P=0.001). Patients with a high Nek2 expression had a significantly worse overall survival (OS) than those patients with low Nek2 expression (P=0.002). Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that high expression of Nek2 could serve as an independent predictor of poor prognosis. These results indicate that Nek2 could be a promising prognostic molecular marker and an attractive therapeutic target for PDA.
Nek2是一种丝氨酸/苏氨酸激酶，在细胞分裂过程中的有丝分裂中起关键作用。尽管其在中心体调节和纺锤体形成中很重要，但尚未报道人类胰腺癌与Nek2蛋白之间存在直接结合物。我们研究Nek2在胰腺癌患者中的表达及生存情况的目的是确定Nek2是否是胰腺癌发生中有价值的预后因素。我们发现胰腺癌组织中Nek2 mRNA水平升高。Nek2的高表达与组织学分化（P = 0.042）、淋巴结转移（P = 0.003）和肿瘤分期（P = 0.001）显著相关。Nek2高表达的患者总生存期（OS）明显低于Nek2低表达的患者（P = 0.002）。单因素和多因素分析显示，Nek2的高表达可作为预后不良的独立预测指标。这些结果表明，Nek2可能是一种有前景的预后分子标志物，也是胰腺癌有吸引力的治疗靶点。
