Pro-oncogene Pokemon Promotes Prostate Cancer Progression by Inducing STRN4 Expression

Abstract

Pokemon, also known as leukemia/lymphoma-related factor (LRF) is a pro-oncogenic protein highly expressed in several cancers. There have been few in vitro and animal studies about its malignant biological behavior and function, however, its role especially in prostate cancer has not been completely elucidated. Therefore, in this study, we identified that Pokemon is overexpressed in human prostate cancer tissue samples, and its suppression inhibits proliferation of prostate cancer cells, along with promotion of apoptosis. Furthermore, to explore the mechanism by which Pokemon promotes tumor progression, we observed that it binds to the promoter of STRN4 (striatin 4), a downstream target, and subsequently regulates its expression. In conclusion, our study indicated that Pokemon through stimulation of STRN4 expression promotes prostate tumor progression via a Pokemon /STRN4 axis.

Capsaicin Inhibits Proliferation and Induces Apoptosis in Breast Cancer by Down-Regulating FBI-1-Mediated NF-κB Pathway

“…40 It has also been reported that FBI-1 knockdown suppresses proliferation, arrests cell cycle and promotes apoptosis in prostate cancer. 41 Some evidence has indicated that the expression of FBI-1 in breast cancer tissues also exhibits significantly higher than that in normal tissues and benign breast disease tissues, which is consistently correlated to the poor prognosis, 20,21,22 and antagonizing FBI-1 could suppress proliferation, arrest cell cycle and promote apoptosis of breast cancer cells. 22,42,43 Consequently, our recent study also confirmed that abnormally high expression of FBI-1 was noted in breast cancer tissues and breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 as well as MDA-MB-231.…”

Altered expression of striatin‑4 is associated with poor prognosis in bladder transitional cell carcinoma

“…Reznickova et al ( 13 ) have revealed that STRN4 functions as a fusion protein during the activation process of PDGFRA and accelerates the development of chronic eosinophilic leukemia ( 11 , 13 ). In another study, STRN4 was reported to promote cell proliferation and inhibit apoptosis in the prostate under the regulation of leukemia/lymphoma-related factor ( 14 ). However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies investigating the expression pattern of STRN4 in bladder cancer and the association between and STRN4 expression and prognosis.…”

The multi-faceted functioning portrait of LRF/ZBTB7A

“…However, LRF/ ZBTB7A association with cancer progression goes far beyond hematological cancers. After the initial report associating LRF/ ZBTB7A with T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia through the suppression of the Arf tumor suppressor ( p19 Arf ) gene and the consequent decrease of p53 activity [38], accumulating evidence further show that LRF/ ZBTB7A is overexpressed in several other human cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) [40–43], hepatocellular carcinoma [44–48], prostate [49, 50], ovarian [51], breast [52–54] and gastric cancers [55], glioma [56], sarcomas [57, 58], colorectal cancer [59–62], and renal carcinoma [63]. Further elucidation of these oncogenic functions revealed that LRF/ ZBTB7A can influence cancer cell survival and proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and migration/metastasis, traits comprising some of the key biological capabilities required for the multistep development of human cancer, also presented as “hallmarks of cancer” [64].…”

“…Other targets of LRF/ ZBTB7A -mediated regulation of oncogenesis include Striatin 4 ( STRN4 ), a protein implicated in the progression of various human cancers [50, 75] and protein C-ets-1 ( ETS-1 ), which is overexpressed in several cancers and implicated in cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and migration [61]. Additionally, in breast cancer cells, LRF/ ZBTB7A has been proposed to participate in transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling, a critical pathway for tumor progression [76], by binding to specificity protein 1 (SP1) and downregulating Smad4 expression [77].…”