Overexpression of hepatic prothymosin alpha, a novel marker for human hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Summary Identification of gene products exclusively or abundantly expressed in cancer may yield novel tumour markers. We recently isolated a number of cDNA clones, including a-prothymosin, from rat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using a subtraction-enhanced display technique. a-Prothymosin is involved in cell proliferation and is regulated by the oncogene c-myc in vitro. In the present study, we analysed a-prothymosin gene expression and its correlation with c-myc in patients with HCC, cirrhosis and adenoma and in normal controls. Hepatic aprothymosin messenger RNA (mRNA) levels were two-to 9.2-fold higher in tumoral tissues than in adjacent non-tumoral tissues in 14 of 17 patients with HCC, regardless of coexisting cirrhosis and viral hepatitis. No marked difference in a-prothymosin mRNA levels was present in patients with adenoma and hepatic cirrhosis and in healthy controls. The c-myc mRNA amounts were two-to fivefold increased in 11 of 17 patients with HCC and correlated significantly with those of a-prothymosin (P < 0.001). In situ hybridization revealed that increased aprothymosin mRNA was localized in the tumour nodules of the patients with HCC. These data suggest that overexpression of a-prothymosin in HCC patients, correlated with c-myc, is possibly involved in the tumorigenic process and may be a novel molecular marker for human HCC.

Novel molecular targets regulated by tumor suppressors microRNA-1 and microRNA-133a in bladder cancer

“…PTMA has been reported to be associated with cancer progression in the liver, lung, prostate, and bladder (28)(29)(30)(31). In this study, PTMA knockdown resulted in BC cell viability inhibition and induction of apoptosis.…”

Prothymosin alpha: a ubiquitous polypeptide with potential use in cancer diagnosis and therapy

“…In situ hybridization revealed that overexpressed proT mRNA was restricted to neoplastic nodules in the hepatic tissue and to tumor cells invading blood vessels [44]. Thymosin 10 1983 42-44 Ubiquitous in man, mouse and rat, cytoplasm [19] In humans, high proT mRNA levels were correlated with those of c-myc in colon [45] and liver cancer [46] and N-myc in neuroblastoma [47] (Table 2). However, although lung cancer tissues showed similarly elevated proT mRNA expression, this was not paralleled by c-myc mRNA increase [48], indicating that simultaneous transcription of the two genes does not occur in all cancer types.…”

Gene expression profile of HIV-1 Tat expressing cells: a close interplay between proliferative and differentiation signals

“…ProTα was shown as a marker for breast cancer [68], hepatocarcinoma [69], and plasma levels of its derivative Tα 1 been proposed as a marker for the prognosis of lung cancer [70]. In ligand blotting assays, ProTα bound only to chromatin pools and nuclear fractions where histone H1 was present [71,72].…”

“…In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the execution of Start requires the activity of the Cdc2 protein kinase and the Cdc10/Sct1 transcription complex. The loss of any of these genes leads to G1 arrest [69].…”