Altogether, this study demonstrates the potential utility of EN2 as a non-invasive diagnostic biomarker for PCa and provides novel and valuable information to further investigate its putative utility to develop new therapeutic tools in PCa.
Engrailed-2 (EN2) protein, a potential biomarker for various cancers such as prostate cancer, bladder cancer, breast cancer and ovarian cancer, is known to be a strong binder to a specific DNA sequence (50-TAATTA-30) to regulate transcription.
The engrailed-2 (EN2) protein, a biomarker for prostate cancer, is known to be a strong binder to a specific DNA sequence (5'-TAATTA-3') to regulate transcription.
The relative expression levels of miR‑212 and EN-2 in PCa samples and adjacent normal tissues as well as in PCa cell lines were detected by using quantitative real-time PCR.
The data showed that miR-33a was upregulated and EN-2 was downregulated in both prostate cancer tissue and prostate cancer cells. miR-33a overexpression suppresses prostate cancer cell survival and metastasis. miR-33a can directly act on EN-2 expression by binding to 3'UTR of its mRNA.
The aims of this paper were to review the published literature on the role of HOX genes in the development of the normal prostate gland and in prostate cancer and to discuss the potential role of the HOX family member, Engrailed-2 (EN2), as a diagnostic test of PCa.