BackgroundGlioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the lethal malignant tumors of the central nervous system. Despite advances made in understanding this complex disease, little has been achieved in improving clinical efficacy towards it. Factors such as chemokines play important role in shaping the tumor microenvironment which in turn plays a significant role in deciding course of tumor progression. In this study, we investigated the role of chemokine IL-8 in glioblastoma progression with particular emphasis on immunomodulation, cellular proliferation, invasion and vascular mimicry.MethodsRole of IL-8 in GBM immunology was determined by correlating the expression of IL-8 by immunohistochemistry with other immune cell markers such as CD3 and CD68. Effect of high IL-8 expression on overall survival, the difference in expression level between different GBM subgroups and anatomic structures were analyzed using other databases. Two GBM cell lines –U-87MG and LN-18 were used to study the impact of targeting IL-8-CXCR1/2 signalling using neutralizing antibodies and pharmacological antagonist. Reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction and immunocytochemistry were used to determine the expression of these axes. Impact on cell viability and proliferation was assessed by MTT, proliferation marker-ki-67 and clonogenic survival assays. Multicellular tumor spheroids generated from GBM cell lines were used to study invasion in matrigel.ResultsWeak Positive correlation was observed between IL-8 and CD3 as well as between IL-8 and CD68. High IL-8 expression in GBM patients was found to be associated with dismal survival. No significant difference in IL-8 expression between different molecular subgroups of GBM was observed. In vitro targeting of IL-8-CXCR1/2 signalling displayed a significant reduction in cell viability and proliferation, and spheroid invasion. Furthermore, the presence of CD34-/CXCR1+ vessels in GBM tissues showed the involvement of IL-8/CXCR1 in vascular mimicry structure formation.ConclusionThese results suggest a direct involvement of IL-8-CXCR1/2 axes in GBM progression by promoting both cell proliferation and invasion and indirectly by promoting neovascularization in the form of vascular mimicry.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12929-018-0464-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

p73 is a member of the p53 tumor suppressor family, which transactivates p53-responsive genes and mediates DNA damage response. Recent evidences suggest that p73 exerts its tumor suppressor functions by suppressing metastasis, but the exact mechanism remains unknown. Here, we identify Navigator-3 (NAV3), a microtubule-binding protein, as a novel transcriptional target of p73, which gets upregulated by DNA damage in a p73-dependent manner and plays a vital role in p73-mediated inhibition of cancer cell invasion, migration, and metastasis. Induction of p73 in response to DNA damage leads to rapid increase in endogenous NAV3 mRNA and protein levels. Through bioinformatic analysis, we identified two p73-binding sites in NAV3 promoter. Consistent with this, p73 binding to NAV3 promoter was confirmed through luciferase, Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, and site-directed mutagenesis assays. Abrogation of NAV3 and p73 expression significantly increased the invasion and migration rate of colorectal cancer cells as confirmed by wound-healing, cell invasion, and cell migration assays. Also, knockdown of NAV3 decreased the expression of E-cadherin and increased the expression of other prominent mesenchymal markers such as N-cadherin, Snail, Vimentin, and Fibronectin. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed the downregulation of both NAV3 and p73 expression in metastatic colon cancer tissues as compared to non-metastatic cancer tissues. Additionally, the expression pattern of NAV3 and p73 showed extensively significant correlation in both non-metastatic and metastatic human colon cancer tissue samples. Taken together, our study provide conclusive evidence that Navigator-3 is a direct transcriptional target of p73 and plays crucial role in response to genotoxic stress in p73-mediated inhibition of cancer cell invasion, migration, and metastasis.