<p>Elevated Expression of ASXL2 is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer by Enhancing Tumorigenesis and Inducing Cell Proliferation</p>

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. ASXL2 is an enhancer of the trithorax and polycomb genes, which have been proven to act in many tumor types. The role of ASXL2 in the occurrence and development of tumors has been extensively studied in recent years. However, the relationship between ASXL2 and the prognosis of CRC is still unclear. Materials and Methods: In this study, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to examine the expression of ASXL2 in CRC tissues. Cells were transfected with siRNAs or lentivirus to regulate the expression of ASXL2. The effects of ASXL2 on the proliferation of CRC cells were determined by CCK8 assay. Results: This study demonstrated that ASXL2 was significantly more highly expressed in CRC specimens than in normal adjacent tissues. The upregulation of ASXL2 was related to advanced clinical stage. Patients who exhibited high expression levels of ASXL2 had poorer overall survival, whereas those with low expression of ASXL2 survived longer. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that ASXL2 expression could be considered an independent prognostic factor for CRC. Inhibition or overexpression of ASXL2 markedly influenced the proliferation of CRC cells. Conclusion: These results showed that ASXL2 could induce cell proliferation, which was associated with poor prognosis of CRC patients, suggesting that ASXL2 might be a new therapeutic target for CRC.

Placental co-transcriptional activator Vestigial-like 1 (VGLL1) drives tumorigenesis via increasing transcription of proliferation and invasion genes

“…These genes were not only highly upregulated by VGLL1 at the mRNA level but were also identified in the ChIP-seq analysis, indicating that VGLL1-TF complexes can interact with them directly. Interestingly, several studies have shown these genes to have roles in cancer cell proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and EMT transition (26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38). Taken together, our findings provide additional mechanistic evidence that VGLL1 plays an important role in modulating the expression of specific genes involved in driving tumor progression.…”

Identification of a de novo variant in the ASXL2 gene related to Shashi‐Pena syndrome

“…ASXL2 encodes a member of a family of epigenetic regulators and is crucial in many biological processes. Alteration in this gene expression has been reported to be related to cancer in various tissue types (Cui et al, 2020; Medina et al, 2022; Wang et al, 2021), and variants of the ASXL2 gene have been reported to be associated with neurodevelopment, cardiac function, and osteoclastogenesis (Shashi et al, 2016). To date, five studies have reported patients with ASXL2 variants, and the variants and clinical features are summarized in Figure 2c and Table 1.…”

Additional Sex Combs-like Family Associated with Epigenetic Regulation

“…ASXL2 is also associated with solid tumors. Elevated ASXL2 expression is linked to poor survival and is correlated with the prognosis of breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers [21,55,56], whereas its downregulation is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma [57]. In mice, ASXL2 loss leads to myeloid leukemia, suggesting a dual role in tumorigenesis.…”