Abstract
BackgroundOvarian cancer is the most aggressive gynecological malignancy. Transcriptional regulators impact the tumor phenotype and, consequently, clinical progression and response to therapy. PHD finger protein 20-like protein 1 (PHF20L1) is a transcriptional regulator with several isoforms, and studies on its role in ovarian cancer are limited. We previously reported that PHF20L1 is expressed as a fucosylated protein in SKOV-3 cells stimulated with ascites from patients with ovarian cancer.MethodsWe decided to analyze the expression of PHF20L1 in ovarian cancer tissues, determine whether a correlation exists between PHF20L1 expression and patient clinical data, and analyze whether ascites can modulate the different isoforms of this protein. Ovarian cancer biopsies from 29 different patients were analyzed by immunohistochemistry, and the expression of the isoforms in ovarian cancer cells with or without exposure to the tumor microenvironment, i.e., the ascitic fluid, was determined by western blotting assays.ResultsImmunohistochemical results suggest that PHF20L1 exhibits increased expression in sections of tumor tissues from patients with ovarian cancer and that higher PHF20L1 expression correlates with shorter progression-free survival and shorter overall survival. Furthermore, western blotting assays determined that protein isoforms are differentially regulated in SKOV-3 cells in response to stimulation with ascites from patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.ConclusionThe results suggest that PHF20L1 could play a relevant role in ovarian cancer given that higher PHF20L1 protein expression is associated with lower overall patient survival.
Highlights
Ovarian cancer is the most aggressive gynecological malignancy
The results showed increased PHD finger protein 20-like 1 (PHF20L1) expression in ovarian cancer tissue compared with healthy ovaries; overexpression showed a negative trend with patient progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS)
Epithelial ovarian cancer tissue overexpressed PHF20L1 PHF20L1 is a protein discreetly expressed in many tissues; high expression is typically present in glandular cells, as reported for the thyroid gland in The Human Protein Atlas https://www.proteinatlas.org/https://www.proteinatlas.org/ [8]
Summary
Transcriptional regulators impact the tumor phenotype and, clinical progression and response to therapy. New molecules are being studied to determine their relevance for the development of ovarian cancer, improve diagnosis, and treat the disease to reduce patient mortality. The set of characteristics that give rise to the tumor phenotype, including those that affect the clinical course and the response to therapy, are controlled by deregulated transcriptional programs that operate on tumor cells [6]. Knowing more about these transcriptional regulators in ovarian cancer could generate useful tools to diagnose, treat, or understand tumor biology
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