ELF4 Contributes to Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Growth and Metastasis by Augmenting Cancer Stemness Via FUT9

Overview

Journal Acta Biochim Biophys Sin (Shanghai)

Specialties Biochemistry
Biophysics

Date 2023 Sep 7

PMID 37674363

Authors

Aiping Xu

Mingchuang Sun

Zhaoxing Li

Yuan Chu

Kang Fang

Yunwei Zhang

Jingjing Lian

Li Zhang

Tao Chen

Meidong Xu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) commonly has aggressive properties and a poor prognosis. Investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the progression of ESCC is crucial for developing effective therapeutic strategies. Here, by performing transcriptome sequencing in ESCC and adjacent normal tissues, we find that E74-like transcription factor 4 (ELF4) is the main upregulated transcription factor in ESCC. The results of the immunohistochemistry show that ELF4 is overexpressed in ESCC tissues and is significantly correlated with cancer staging and prognosis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ELF4 could promote cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and stemness by assays. Through RNA-seq and ChIP assays, we find that the stemness-related gene fucosyltransferase 9 ( ) is transcriptionally activated by ELF4. Meanwhile, ELF4 is verified to affect ESCC cancer stemness by regulating FUT9 expression. Overall, we first discover that the transcription factor ELF4 is overexpressed in ESCC and can promote ESCC progression by transcriptionally upregulating the stemness-related gene .

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PMID: 38660717 PMC: 11322865. DOI: 10.3724/abbs.2024044.

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