Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Nantong Tumor Hospital, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck surgery, Affiliated Hospital and Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
J Mol Histol. 2023 Dec;54(6):633-644. doi: 10.1007/s10735-023-10165-2. Epub 2023 Oct 24.
Cluster of differentiation (CD) 73, encoded by the NT5E gene, plays important enzymatic and non-enzymatic roles in cells. There is growing evidence show that CD73 is a key regulator in the development of tumor. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common cancers in east and southeast Asia. It is urgent to know more about the mechanism of NPC development and find diagnostic markers for the patients. In this research, we carried out western blot, immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR to investigate the expression level of CD73 and found that NPC tissues had higher level of CD73 than normal tissues. We also detected the relationship between its expression level with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of NPC patients. The results showed that CD73 expression was related to the clinical stages, lymph node metastasis and survival state of NPC patients. More importantly, patients with higher expression of CD73 had poorer prognosis. Then, CD73 was knocked down in NPC cells (CNE2 and CNE1), and its effects on cell proliferation and migration were investigated by CCK8, colony formation, Transwell and wound-healing assays. We found that knocking down the expression of CD73 in NPC cells could inhibit cells malignant phenotype. Collectively, CD73 plays important roles in NPC malignant behavior and might act as a novel target for the diagnosis and treatment of NPC.
分化簇 (CD) 73 由 NT5E 基因编码，在细胞中发挥重要的酶和非酶作用。越来越多的证据表明 CD73 是肿瘤发展的关键调节剂。鼻咽癌 (NPC) 是东亚和东南亚最常见的癌症之一。了解更多 NPC 发展的机制并为患者找到诊断标志物是当务之急。在这项研究中，我们通过 Western blot、免疫组织化学和 qRT-PCR 检测了 CD73 的表达水平，发现 NPC 组织中的 CD73 水平高于正常组织。我们还检测了其表达水平与 NPC 患者的临床病理特征和预后之间的关系。结果表明，CD73 的表达与 NPC 患者的临床分期、淋巴结转移和生存状态有关。更重要的是，CD73 表达较高的患者预后较差。然后，我们在 NPC 细胞 (CNE2 和 CNE1) 中敲低 CD73 的表达，并通过 CCK8、集落形成、Transwell 和划痕愈合实验研究其对细胞增殖和迁移的影响。我们发现，敲低 NPC 细胞中 CD73 的表达可以抑制细胞的恶性表型。综上所述，CD73 在 NPC 的恶性行为中发挥重要作用，可能成为 NPC 诊断和治疗的新靶点。
