Abstract
Cluster of differentiation (CD) 73, encoded by the NT5E gene, plays important enzymatic and non-enzymatic roles in cells. There is growing evidence show that CD73 is a key regulator in the development of tumor. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common cancers in east and southeast Asia. It is urgent to know more about the mechanism of NPC development and find diagnostic markers for the patients. In this research, we carried out western blot, immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR to investigate the expression level of CD73 and found that NPC tissues had higher level of CD73 than normal tissues. We also detected the relationship between its expression level with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of NPC patients. The results showed that CD73 expression was related to the clinical stages, lymph node metastasis and survival state of NPC patients. More importantly, patients with higher expression of CD73 had poorer prognosis. Then, CD73 was knocked down in NPC cells (CNE2 and CNE1), and its effects on cell proliferation and migration were investigated by CCK8, colony formation, Transwell and wound-healing assays. We found that knocking down the expression of CD73 in NPC cells could inhibit cells malignant phenotype. Collectively, CD73 plays important roles in NPC malignant behavior and might act as a novel target for the diagnosis and treatment of NPC.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Xin He and Dr. Qing Zhang for their contribution in IHC.
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This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81702707). The scientific and innovative research project of Nantong (No. MSZ18095).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by BJ, MMT, SS, HJX, LZ, JPS. SP performed statistical analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by BJ, MMT and SS. JPS and LZ contributed to the project discussion and manuscript revision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Jiang, B., Tang, M., Shi, S. et al. Effects of abnormal expression of CD73 on malignant phenotype of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. J Mol Histol 54, 633–644 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-023-10165-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-023-10165-2