Abstract
Survival rates for patients with gastric cancer, especially the advanced form, remain poor and the development of targeted treatments is hampered by a lack of efficient biological targets. Poly(rC) binding protein 2 (PCBP2) is an RNA‐binding protein that contributes to mRNA stabilization, translational silencing and enhancement and it has been implicated as a promoter of gastric cancer growth. In the present study, we demonstrated that the expression level of PCBP2 was higher in human gastric cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal gastric tissues. A high level of PCBP2 was correlated with worse postoperative relapse‐free survival and overall survival rates of gastric cancer patients. Small hairpin RNA‐mediated depletion of PCBP2 dramatically decreased the viability of gastric cancer cells. Cyclin‐dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) was positively regulated by PCBP2 via a direct 3′ UTR binding pathway as determined using a ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation assay and a biotin pulldown assay. CDK2 mediated the promoting role of PCBP2. These results suggest that PCBP2 acts as an oncogene in human gastric cancer cells and that functionally depleting PCBP2 could be considered as a potential target for gastric cancer therapy.
Highlights
Survival rates for patients with gastric cancer, especially the advanced form, remain poor and the development of targeted treatments is hampered by a lack of efficient biological targets
Poly(rC) binding protein 2 (PCBP2) is an RNA-binding protein that contributes to mRNA stabilization, translational silencing and enhancement and it has been implicated as a promoter of gastric cancer growth
We examined the expression of PCBP2, which was much higher in human gastric cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal gastric tissues, and found that the over-expression of PCBP2 is correlated with poor survival among gastric cancer patients
Summary
Survival rates for patients with gastric cancer, especially the advanced form, remain poor and the development of targeted treatments is hampered by a lack of efficient biological targets. Poly(rC) binding protein 2 (PCBP2) is an RNA-binding protein that contributes to mRNA stabilization, translational silencing and enhancement and it has been implicated as a promoter of gastric cancer growth. CDK2 mediated the promoting role of PCBP2 These results suggest that PCBP2 acts as an oncogene in human gastric cancer cells and that functionally depleting PCBP2 could be considered as a potential target for gastric cancer therapy. PCBP2 was reported to Abbreviations CDK2, cyclin dependent kinase 2; IP, immunoprecipitation; MTT, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide; OS, overall survival; PCBP2, poly(rC) binding protein 2; qRT-PCR, quantitative RT-PCR; RFS, relapse-free survival; shRNA, small hairpin RNA. To the best of our knowledge, the intrinsic mechanism of PCBP2 with respect to promoting human gastric cancer is still unclear and further investigations are necessary
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