Overall, our observations suggest that the NFIL3/PrPc axis, through regulating lamellipodium formation and cell mobility via JNK signaling, plays a critical role in lung cancer invasiveness and metastasis.
In specimens from patients with colorectal cancer, the expressions of cellular prion protein (PrP<sup>C</sup> ) and Oct4 were significantly correlated with metastasis and tumor stages.
Since overexpression of neuronal proteins gamma-synuclein (γ-Syn) and cellular prion protein (PrP<sup>C</sup>) is always detected in advanced stages of cancer diseases which involve metastasis, this study aimed to investigate whether γ-Syn or PrP<sup>C</sup> overexpression in colorectal adenocarcinoma, LS 174T cells affects angiogenesis of endothelial cells, EA.hy 926 (EA).
The major reasons for cancer cell-caused patient death are metastasis and multiple drug resistance, both of which connect to physiological functions of PrP expressing in cancer cells.
With respect to cancer development and progression, elevations and mutations of PrP(c) expression have been shown to increase the risk for malignancy and metastasis in breast and colorectal cancer.
Here, we show that the expression of cellular prion protein (PrPc, PRNP) is positively correlated with an increased risk of metastasis in colorectal cancer.
Prion proteins (PRNP and PRND), known mostly for its involvement in neurodegenerative spongiform encephalopathies, have been recently demonstrated to be involved in resistance to apoptosis, tumorigenesis, proliferation, and metastasis.
In our previous work, we found that overexpressed PrPC in gastric cancer was involved in apoptosis, cell proliferation, and metastasis of gastric cancer.