Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K is overexpressed and associated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer

Abstract

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) is one of the major pre-mRNA-binding proteins, that is involved in translational modifications. In our previous studies, we found that hnRNP K is associated with human gastric cancer. The protein levels of hnRNP K were detected in cell lines and tissue microarrays. The correlation between hnRNP K expression and patient survival rate was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. In addition, we also detected hnRNP K expression in preoperative and postoperative serum samples from patients with gastric cancer, and serum samples from healthy volunteers. We found that hnRNP K was overexpressed in the gastric cancer cell lines. The levels of hnRNP K were significantly elevated in the gastric cancer tissues compared with that noted in the tumor-adjacent gastric mucosal and normal gastric mucosal sampes, and hnRNP K expression was found to correlate with tumor stage and lymph node metastasis. However, the level of serum hnRNP K did not differ significantly between gastric cancer patients and healthy volunteers. We also found that patients whose tumors showed elevated expression of hnRNP K had poor survival. The present study suggests that hnRNP K is a promising tissue biomarker for diagnosing gastric cancer and is a prognostic indicator for patients with gastric cancer.

lncRNA-MIAT regulates cell biological behaviors in gastric cancer through a mechanism involving the miR-29a-3p/HDAC4 axis

“…Gastric cancer (GC) is a highly malignant tumor with complicated pathogenesis. While progress has been achieved in understanding the aetiology and risk factor of GC, there has been little improvement in GC survival rates (17,18). The keystones to improving health outcomes remain the early diagnosis and efficacious treatment (19).…”

Diverse roles of RNA‐binding proteins in cancer traits and their implications in gastrointestinal cancers

“…Many other RBPs also exhibit changed expression in GC tissues. The hnRNP‐A1, ‐A2/B1, ‐C, ‐F, ‐K, polypyrimidine tract‐binding protein (PTBP)‐1, ‐3, poly r(C) binding protein 2, IMP‐3, Musashi‐1, and non‐POU domain containing octamer binding protein (NONO) were upregulated (C. Chen et al, ; Huang et al, ; Jing et al, ; P. T. Lee et al, ; D. Li et al, ; Park et al, ; Shou et al, ; Sugiyama et al, ; S. H. Xu et al, ; R. Yang et al, ; Zhou et al, ), while RNA‐binding motif (RBM)‐4, ‐5, RBM single‐stranded interacting protein 3 (RBMS3), and PCBP1 were inhibited (Ji et al, ; Kobayashi et al, ; Y. Wu et al, ; Yong et al, ; T. Zhang et al, ). These aberrant expression patterns were thought to associate with pathologic feature and survival of GC patients, but further investigations are needed to reveal their functions and direct targets during cancer development.…”

RNA-Binding Proteins as Important Regulators of Long Non-Coding RNAs in Cancer

“…HnRNPK fulfills a wide variety of cellular functions, for example by acting as a transcription factor, regulating translation, and serving as a hub for various signaling pathways [141]. Numerous studies have observed oncogenic effects as well as a prognostic relevance of hnRNPK in different types of cancer, like breast, colorectal, and gastric cancer, where its overall levels are increased and it is aberrantly localized in the cytoplasm [142][143][144]. The binding of hnRNPK to RNA occurs via the interaction of its three KH domains, which are a type of RNA-binding motif first discovered in and therefore named after the RBP, with poly-C sequences in the RNA targets [145,146].…”