Loss of plexin-B3 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Plexins are the primary receptors of semaphorins, and participate in the majority of intracellular pathways triggered by semaphorins, including the regulation of cell adhesion and the motility of numerous cell types. Recently, several studies have reported that plexins can significantly affect different aspects of cancer cell biology, and the aberrant expression of plexins has been observed in a wide variety of tumor types. However, the expression and role of plexin-B3 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is yet to be investigated. In the present study, plexin-B3 expression was measured in 14 paired HCC samples and the corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tissue by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. The results indicated that the mRNA and protein expression levels of plexin-B3 were downregulated in HCC samples when compared with the corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tissue. In order to elucidate the correlation between clinicopathological data and the expression of plexin-B3 in patients with HCC, 84 HCC archived specimens were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The IHC results revealed that the protein expression level of plexin-B3 was lower in the HCC samples compared with the corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tissue, and plexin-B3 underexpression was correlated with the patient gender and tumor size. In conclusion, these results indicated that loss of plexin-B3 in HCC may be of predictive value for the occurrence and progression of HCC. Thus, plexin-B3 may be a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of tumors in the future.

Glycoproteomics Identifies Plexin-B3 as Targetable Cell Surface Protein Required for Growth and Invasion of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells

“…Prior reports and data mining indicate PLXNB3 is mostly absent from normal tissues, and its expression in adult tissues is restricted primarily to the central nervous system ( Figure 2C and Figures S2A/B ), making PLXNB3 an attractive target for novel therapies. PLXNB3 mutations have been described in breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer (Liu et al, 2015; Saxena et al, 2021). In breast cancer, increased PLXNB3 mRNA expression was observed in moderately and poorly differentiated tumors compared to well-differentiated tumors (Malik et al, 2015).…”

Plexin-B3 Regulates Cellular Motility, Invasiveness, and Metastasis in Pancreatic Cancer

“…These missense mutations resulted in the loss of Plexin-B3 function. Likewise, Liu et al reported the downregulation of Plexin-B3 mRNA and protein expression in hepatocellular carcinoma samples compared to the corresponding adjacent noncancerous tissue [ 25 ]. Furthermore, this group elucidated the correlation between Plexin-B3 expression and clinicopathological data by performing IHC on 84 hepatocellular carcinoma archived specimens and showed a lower expression of Plexin-B3 in tumor tissues in comparison with the corresponding adjacent noncancerous tissues.…”

Pine needle oil induces G2/M arrest of HepG2 cells by activating the ATM pathway

“…Liver cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed types of cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer mortality ( 26 , 27 ). This disease is responsible for ~1 million mortalities per year ( 28 ).…”