<p>Low expression of ZMYND8 correlates with aggressive features and poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma</p>

Abstract

PurposeZMYND8 is closely correlated with cancerous proliferation and invasiveness. However, its prognostic value has not been estimated in a nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The purpose of this study was to elucidate the status of ZMYND8 expression and its prognostic significance in NPCs.MethodsThe status of ZMYND8 expression was investigated by immunohistochemistry for NPC samples in the study. The cutoff value of ZMYND8 expression was confirmed in NPCs using ROC-curve analysis. Correlations between ZMYND8 expression and clinicopathological variables and patient prognosis were analyzed by various statistical methods.ResultsOur study showed that low expression of ZMYND8 strongly correlated with late T stage in NPCs (P<0.05). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed a significant association between low ZMYND8 expression and worse overall survival (P<0.05). Most importantly, Cox regression analysis confirmed ZMYND8 expression in NPC could be an independent prognostic factor.ConclusionLow expression of ZMYND8 could be of importance, due to its displaying more aggressive behavior in NPC. Therefore, ZMYND8 expression might serve as an independent prediction factor in patients with NPCs.

Validation of ZMYND8 as a new treatment target in hepatocellular carcinoma

“…However, upregulation of ZMYND8 by hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) or overexpression of ZMYND8 via positive feedback of the estrogen receptor (ER) pathway was also correlated with poor prognosis of patients in breast cancer (Chen et al 2018b;Yu et al 2017). Immunohistochemical expression of ZMYND8 showed favorable prognostic effects in nasopharyngeal cancers, but adverse effects in colorectal cancers (Chen et al 2020;Chen et al 2019). As above, it is not conclusive for the role of ZMYND8 in cancer progression, and there have been no previous reports evaluating the role of ZMYND8 in HCC.…”

“…Basu et al demonstrated ZMYND8 as a target gene of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), involved in ATRA-mediated inhibition of cancer proliferation, and regulated epithelial to mesenchymal transition to maintain the epithelial phenotypes by selective enrichment on CLDN1/CDH1(Basu et al 2017a;Basu et al 2017b). Low expression of ZMYND8 protein by IHC have been reported as an independent prognostic factor for worse survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma(Chen et al 2019). However, there have been studies reporting ZMYND8 as an oncogenes.…”

Regulation of ZMYND8 to Treat Cancer

“…The expression of ZMYND8 decreases in some cancers [ 10 , 25 , 36 ]. It is downregulated in invasive ductal and lobular breast cancer tissues, compared with normal tissues [ 10 ].…”

“…In addition, ZMYND8 expression is lower in breast cancer patients with invasive ductal carcinoma than in ductal carcinoma in situ [ 25 ]. In 190 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, low ZMYND8 expression was correlated with late T stage, presence of lymph node metastasis, advanced stage, and poor overall patient survival [ 36 ]. ZMYND8 is a retinoic acid–inducible gene, and ATRA, a differentiation-inducing drug, can reprogram the epigenetic features of the upstream regulatory region of ZMYND8 and promote its expression [ 4 , 9 ].…”

“…The level of ZMYND8 expression is crucial for proliferation and invasiveness of cancer cells, and increased ZMYND8 expression is reported in colorectal, cervical, breast, and prostate cancers [ 2 , 21 , 23 , 36 ]. Analyses of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database suggested that high expression of ZMYND8 was closely correlated with poor overall and disease-free survival in 174 colorectal cancer patients [ 23 ].…”