Expression of CDC42 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics

Objective： The high expression of cell division cycle 42 protein （CDC42） may be involved in the occurrence and progression of several tumors. However, the expression and function of CDC42 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the expression of CDC42 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics. Methods： The expression of CDC42 in 162 cervical squamous cell carcinoma tissue samples and 33 normal cervical tissue samples was investigated by immunohistochemistry. The CDC42 mRNA expression was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR）. Results： The cervical squamous cell carcinoma group showed a significantly higher CDC42 positive rate, compared to the normal cervical tissues （P〈0.05）. Fttrthermore, the tissues of stage Ⅱ-Ⅳ carcinoma patients showed higher CDC42 expression levels compared to stage I patients （P=0.05）. In addition, the expression of CDC42 was not correlated to age of patients, differentiation degree of cancer cells, or lymph node metastasis （P〉0.05）. Furthermore, compare with normal cervical tissues, the CDC42 mRNA expression in cervical cancer had no significant difference. Conclusions： CDC42 was up-regulated at protein level, but not mRNA level, in cervical squamous cell carcinoma. The high expression of CDC42 was correlated to the clinical stage of the patients, indicating that CDC42 might contribute to the progression of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

LncRNA ZFPM2-AS1 promotes phyllodes tumor progression by binding to CDC42 and inhibiting STAT1 activation

Breast phyllodes tumor(PT)is a rare fibroepithelial neoplasm with potential malignant behavior.Long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)play multifaceted roles in various cancers,but their involvement in breast PT remains largely unexplored.In this study,microarray was leveraged for the first time to investigate the role of lncRNA in PT.We identified lncRNA ZFPM2-AS1 was significantly upregulated in malignant PT,and its overexpression endowed PT with high tumor grade and adverse prognosis.Furthermore,we elucidated that ZFPM2-AS1 promotes the proliferation,migration,and invasion of malignant PT in vitro.Targeting ZFPM2-AS1 through nanomaterial-mediated siRNA delivery in patient-derived xenograft(PDX)model could effectively inhibit tumor progression in vivo.Mechanistically,our findings showed that ZFPM2-AS1 is competitively bound to CDC42,inhibiting ACK1 and STAT1 activation,thereby launching the transcription of TNFRSF19.In conclusion,our study provides evidence that ZFPM2-AS1 plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of breast PT,and suggests that ZFPM2-AS1 could serve as a prognostic indicator for patients with PT as well as a promising novel therapeutic target.