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The correlation of EMT and p53 immunohistochemical markers with cisplatin resistance in muscle invasive bladder cancer patients: A single-centred study

Paramanantham Y, B M Said NA, Mun KS

Malays J Pathol, 2023 Apr;45(1):19-29.
PMID: 37119243

INTRODUCTION: Although epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and p53 have been established to play a pivotal role in the aggressiveness of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), its pathological correlation to cisplatin treatment in the Malaysian patient cohort is lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the association of EMT markers, e-cadherin, vimentin and actin, as well as tumour suppressor gene, p53, in cisplatin-receiving MIBC patients.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Formalin-fixed paraffinembedded (FFPE) blocks of muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients receiving cisplatin-based chemotherapy between January 2010 to December 2020 were traced. Immunohistochemistry staining was performed on traced blocks using antibodies to e-cadherin, vimentin and actin, and p53.
RESULTS: p53 and e-cadherin were stained positive in most cases (p=0.515 and 0.242 respectively), although e-cadherin showed stronger positive expression in pre-cisplatin receiving MIBC cases. All the cases stained negative for actin and vimentin except for faint staining observed in one pre-cisplatin case.
CONCLUSION: Although this study does not show a significant correlation between EMT markers and p53 with cisplatin-responsiveness in MIBC patients, the results serve as preliminary findings on the heterogeneous outcomes of molecular staining in the Malaysian MIBC patient cohort.
Strategies and challenges for systematically mapping biologically significant molecular pathways regulating carcinoma epithelial-mesenchymal transition

Said NA, Simpson KJ, Williams ED

Cells Tissues Organs (Print), 2013;197(6):424-34.
PMID: 23774256 DOI: 10.1159/000351717

Enormous progress has been made towards understanding the role of specific factors in the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); however, the complex underlying pathways and the transient nature of the transition continues to present significant challenges. Targeting tumour cell plasticity underpinning EMT is an attractive strategy to combat metastasis. Global gene expression profiling and high-content analyses are among the strategies employed to identify novel EMT regulators. In this review, we highlight several approaches to systematically interrogate key pathways involved in EMT, with particular emphasis on the features of multiparametric, high-content imaging screening strategies that lend themselves to the systematic discovery of highly significant modulators of tumour cell plasticity.
Whole-genome multiparametric screening to identify modulators of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition

Said NA, Gould CM, Lackovic K, Simpson KJ, Williams ED

Assay Drug Dev Technol, 2014 Sep;12(7):385-94.
PMID: 25181411 DOI: 10.1089/adt.2014.593

Metastasis accounts for the poor prognosis of the majority of solid tumors. The phenotypic transition of nonmotile epithelial tumor cells to migratory and invasive "mesenchymal" cells (epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition [EMT]) enables the transit of cancer cells from the primary tumor to distant sites. There is no single marker of EMT; rather, multiple measures are required to define cell state. Thus, the multiparametric capability of high-content screening is ideally suited for the comprehensive analysis of EMT regulators. The aim of this study was to generate a platform to systematically identify functional modulators of tumor cell plasticity using the bladder cancer cell line TSU-Pr1-B1 as a model system. A platform enabling the quantification of key EMT characteristics, cell morphology and mesenchymal intermediate filament vimentin, was developed using the fluorescent whole-cell-tracking reagent CMFDA and a fluorescent promoter reporter construct, respectively. The functional effect of genome-wide modulation of protein-coding genes and miRNAs coupled with those of a collection of small-molecule kinase inhibitors on EMT was assessed using the Target Activation Bioapplication integrated in the Cellomics ArrayScan platform. Data from each of the three screens were integrated to identify a cohort of targets that were subsequently examined in a validation assay using siRNA duplexes. Identification of established regulators of EMT supports the utility of this screening approach and indicated capacity to identify novel regulators of this plasticity program. Pathway analysis coupled with interrogation of cancer-related expression profile databases and other EMT-related screens provided key evidence to prioritize further experimental investigation into the molecular regulators of EMT in cancer cells.
Fulltext Genome-wide gain-of-function screen for genes that induce epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer

Škalamera D, Dahmer-Heath M, Stevenson AJ, Pinto C, Shah ET, Daignault SM, et al.

Oncotarget, 2016 Sep 20;7(38):61000-61020.
PMID: 27876705 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.11314

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a developmental program that has been implicated in progression, metastasis and therapeutic resistance of some carcinomas. To identify genes whose overexpression drives EMT, we screened a lentiviral expression library of 17000 human open reading frames (ORFs) using high-content imaging to quantitate cytoplasmic vimentin. Hits capable of increasing vimentin in the mammary carcinoma-derived cell line MDA-MB-468 were confirmed in the non-tumorigenic breast-epithelial cell line MCF10A. When overexpressed in this model, they increased the rate of cell invasion through Matrigel™, induced mesenchymal marker expression and reduced expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin. In gene-expression datasets derived from breast cancer patients, the expression of several novel genes correlated with expression of known EMT marker genes, indicating their in vivo relevance. As EMT-associated properties are thought to contribute in several ways to cancer progression, genes identified in this study may represent novel targets for anti-cancer therapy.