Nonmuscle myosin IIA is associated with poor prognosis of esophageal squamous cancer

Abstract

Nonmuscle myosin IIA (myosin IIA) is a force-producing protein involved in the process of cell migration. Its expression has been considered as a bad prognostic indicator in stage I lung adenocarcinoma. However, the expression and clinical significance of myosin IIA in esophageal cancer has not been explored. In this study, we investigate the expression level of myosin IIA in 50 esophageal squamous cancer and 30 adjacent normal esophageal tissues by immunohistochemical staining and correlated its expression with clinicopathological features. Myosin IIA was expressed in all esophageal squamous cancer tissues (100%) and 8 of 30 adjacent normal tissues (26.7%, P = 0.000). In cancer tissues, elevated myosin IIA expression level was significantly correlated with increasing metastatic lymph nodes, poorer cancer differentiation, and advanced tumor stage. Further univariate analysis suggested that strong myosin IIA expression was associated with a significantly shorter overall survival (P = 0.021). In addition, MYH9 SiRNA was transfected into esophageal squamous cancer cell line (KYSE-510) to study the role of myosin IIA in cell migration. SiRNA-mediated depletion of myosin IIA in KYSE-510 cells significantly increased cell-matrix adhesion and attenuated cell migration ability (P = 0.000). In conclusion, these findings indicate that overexpression of myosin IIA may contribute to the progression and poor prognosis of esophageal squamous cancer, and this effect may be associated with increased cancer cell migration.

Prognostic impact of MYH9 expression on patients with acute myeloid leukemia

“…Here, we find that high MYH9 expressers harbored poor overall survival in two different cohorts. These results were consistent with several recent reports showing that high expression of MYH9 was correlated with short survival in solid tumors [7, 9, 10]. …”

“…With respect to expression value of MYH9 , it was reported that reduced expression of myosin-9 was exhibited in CLL samples from high-risk patients. In contrast, high MYH9 expression was associated with poor clinical outcome in patients with several tumors such as lung cancer [6], esophageal [7], bladder [8], gastric cancer [9] and malignant pleural mesothelioma [5]. However, the clinical significance of MYH9 expression in AML is still unclear.…”

A three-protein signature and clinical outcome in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

“…Myosin-9 has been reported to be a target for anti-invasive treatment in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells [34] and gastric cancer [35]. High expression of myosin-9 is correlated with short survival in lung adenocarcinoma and ESCC [36], similar to our results.…”

How myosin organization of the actin cytoskeleton contributes to the cancer phenotype

“…Moreover, NM2B was recently shown to be important for nuclear translocation during 3D invasion, while NM2A was required for generating traction forces during intial adhesion and spreading [41]. While no changes to NM2B have so far been reported in cancer, increased expression levels of NM2A have been linked to gastric cancer [42], non small cell lung cancer [43], oesophageal [44] and bladder cancer [45], while decreased levels are associated with squamous cell carcinomas [46], where NM2A was identified as a tumour suppressor. In contrast, expression levels of NM2A were the same for a range of LNCaP, PC3 and DU145 prostate cancer cell lines, and were unchanged in prostate cancer tissues with low and high metastatic potential [5].…”