Recent studies show that YTH domain family 2 (YTHDF2) preferentially binds to mA-containing mRNA regulates localization and stability of the bound mRNA. However, the role of YTHDF2 in pancreatic cancers remains to be elucidated. Here, we find that YTHDF2 expression is up-regulated in pancreatic cancer tissues compared with normal tissues at both mRNA and protein levels, and is higher in clinical patients with later stages of pancreatic cancer, indicating that YTHDF2 possesses potential clinical significance for diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancers. Furthermore, we find that YTHDF2 orchestrates two cellular processes: promotes proliferation and inhibits migration and invasion in pancreatic cancer cells, a phenomenon called "migration-proliferation dichotomy", as well as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in pancreatic cancer cells. Furthermore, YTHDF2 knockdown significantly increases the total YAP expression, but inhibits TGF-β/Smad signaling, indicating that YTHDF2 regulates EMT probably via YAP signaling. In summary, all these findings suggest that YTHDF2 may be a new predictive biomarker of development of pancreatic cancer, but a serious consideration is needed to treat YTHDF2 as a target for pancreatic cancer.
Although a disintegrin and metalloproteinase-17 (ADAM17) overexpression has been demonstrated in numerous human tumors including gastric cancer, its role in gastric cancer development remains to be clarified. In the present study, we identify that ADAM17 activates TGF-β/Smad signaling to promote epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in gastric cancer cells. We found that ADAM17 promotes proliferation, migration and invasion in gastric carcinoma cells. Subsequently, we revealed that silencing ADAM17 induces the expression of epithelial marker of E-cadherin and downregulates expression of mesenchymal markers including N-cadherin, vimentin and Snail in MGC803 and MKN45 cells, whereas ADAM17 overexpression reverses these changes in BGC823 and HGC27 cells. Furthermore, ADAM17 knockdown significantly inhibits the expression of TGF-β and its downstream signaling molecules p-Smad2 and p-Smad3 in MGC803 and MKN45 cells. Consistently, ADAM17 overexpression reversed these changes in BGC823 and HGC27 cells. These results suggest that ADAM17 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition via the TGF-β/Smad pathway. Collectively, the present study demonstrates that ADAM17 plays a critical role in the development of gastric cancer and provides a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.
The expression level of tumor-related mRNA can reveal significant information about tumor progression and prognosis, so specific mRNA in cells provides an important approach for biological and disease studies. Here, fluorescence lifetime imaging of nanoflares in living cells was first employed to detect specific intracellular mRNA. We characterized the lifetime changes of the prepared nanoflares before and after the treatment of target mRNA and also compared the results with those of fluorescence intensity-based measurements both intracellularly and extracellularly. The nanoflares released the cy5-modified oligonucleotides and bound to the targets, resulting in a fluorescence lifetime lengthening. This work puts forward another dimension of detecting specific mRNA in cells and can also open new ways for detection of many other biomolecules.
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