Cellular Prion Protein Is Closely Associated with Early Recurrence and Poor Survival in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

The cellular prion protein (PrPC) is known to play a role in cancer proliferation and metastasis. However, the role of PrPC expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unknown. This study investigated whether overexpression of PrPC affects recurrence after surgical resection and survival in HCC. A total of 110 HCC patients who underwent hepatic resection were included. They were followed up for a median of 42 months (range 1–213 months) after hepatectomy. The relationships between PrPC expression and the HCC histologic features, recurrence of HCC following surgical resection, and survival of the patients were examined. Seventy-one cases (64.5%) of HCC demonstrated higher expression of PrPC. The expression of PrPC was only correlated with diabetes mellitus. There was no association between PrPC expression and age, sex, hypertension, hepatitis B virus positivity, alcohol consumption, Child–Pugh class, major portal vein invasion, serum alpha-fetoprotein, and HCC size or number. The 1-year recurrence rates in patients with higher PrPC expression were higher than those with lower PrPC expression. The cumulative survival rates of patients with higher PrPC expression were significantly shorter than those of patients with lower PrPC expression. In conclusion, PrPC expression is closely associated with early recurrence and poor survival of HCC patients following surgical resection.

The Multifaceted Functions of Prion Protein (PrPC) in Cancer

“…In the last decade, PrP C has also been shown to play a significant role in cancer biology. PrP C has been found to be upregulated or ectopically expressed in different types of cancer tissues, such as hepatocellular carcinoma, gastric cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, prostate cancer, osteosarcoma, and glioblastoma [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. The increased expression of PrP C appears to play a crucial role in cancer growth, development, differentiation, invasion, migration, metastasis, chemotherapy resistance, and resistance to apoptosis [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37].…”

The Humanization and Maturation of an Anti-PrPc Antibody

“…Fan’s laboratory first found thd PRNP gene (encoding PrPc) was up-regulated in gastric cancer in 2002 and subsequently found that PrPc expression can enhance gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration and drug resistance [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. The expression of PRNP is positively associated with tumor development, drug resistance and poor prognosis in colorectal cancer [ 6 , 7 ], pancreatic carcinoma [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], breast cancer [ 11 , 12 ], hepatocellular carcinoma [ 13 ], esophageal squamous cell carcinoma [ 14 ], glioma [ 15 ] and lung cancer [ 16 , 17 ]. Multiple studies show that the suppression of PrPc expression can reduce tumor cell viability.…”