Differential Expression of Heat Shock Proteins in Pancreatic Carcinoma (original) (raw)

The significance of phosphorylated heat shock protein 27 on the prognosis of pancreatic cancer

Oncotarget, 2016

The precise role of phosphorylated heat shock protein (HSP) 27 (p-HSP27) in pancreatic cancer remains to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the expression of p-HSP27 predicts the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer. We retrospectively assessed 49 biopsied pancreatic cancer tissue samples that were obtained prior to the treatment with gemcitabine. The correlations between p-HSP27 and the clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. p-HSP27 was not correlated with the response to chemotherapy or histological type. However, the median survival time was significantly longer in the patients with high p-HSP27 (275 days, n = 18) than those with low p-HSP27 (205 days, n = 31) (P = 0.0158). A multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that low p-HSP27 predicted a worse prognosis. Higher p-HSP27 expression before chemotherapy was correlated with better survival, indicating that p-HSP27 expression could be used to predict the ...

Heat shock protein 27 as a prognostic and predictive biomarker in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 2012

A role of heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) as a potential biomarker has been reported in various tumour entities, but comprehensive studies in pancreatic cancer are lacking. Applying tissue microarray (TMA) analysis, we correlated HSP27 protein expression status with clinicopathologic parameters in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma specimens from 86 patients. Complementary, we established HSP27 overexpression and RNA-interference models to assess the impact of HSP27 on chemo-and radiosensitivity directly in pancreatic cancer cells. In the TMA study, HSP27 expression was found in 49% of tumour samples. Applying univariate analyses, a significant correlation was found between HSP27 expression and survival. In the multivariate Cox-regression model, HSP27 expression emerged as an independent prognostic factor. HSP27 expression also correlated inversely with nuclear p53 accumulation, indicating either protein interactions between HSP27 and p53 or TP53 mutation-dependent HSP27-regulation in pancreatic cancer. In the sensitivity studies, HSP27 overexpression rendered HSP27 low-expressing PL5 pancreatic cancer cells more susceptible towards treatment with gemcitabine. Vice versa, HSP27 protein depletion in HSP27 high-expressing AsPC-1 cells caused increased gemcitabine resistance. Importantly, HSP27 expression was inducible in pancreatic cancer cell lines as well as primary cells. Taken together, our study suggests a role for HSP27 as a prognostic and predictive marker in pancreatic cancer. Assessment of HSP27 expression could thus facilitate the identification of specific patient subpopulations that might benefit from individualized treatment options. Additional studies need to clarify whether modulation of HSP27 expression could represent an attractive concept to support the incorporation of hyperthermia in clinical treatment protocols for pancreatic cancer.

The Clinical Significance of Phosphorylated Heat Shock Protein 27 (HSPB1) in Pancreatic Cancer

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2016

Pancreatic cancer is one of most aggressive forms of cancer. After clinical detection it exhibits fast metastatic growth. Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27; HSPB1) has been characterized as a molecular chaperone which modifies the structures and functions of other proteins in cells when they are exposed to various stresses, such as chemotherapy. While the administration of gemcitabine, an anti-tumor drug, has been the standard treatment for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, accumulating evidence shows that HSP27 plays a key role in the chemosensitivity to gemcitabine. In addition, phosphorylated HSP27 induced by gemcitabine has been associated with the inhibition of pancreatic cancer cell growth. In this review, we summarize the role of phosphorylated HSP27, as well as HSP27, in the regulation of chemosensitivity in pancreatic cancer.

Increased expression of heat shock protein-binding protein 1 and heat shock protein 70 in human hepatocellular carcinoma tissues

Molecular medicine reports

Heat shock protein-binding protein 1 (HspBP1) is a co-chaperone that inhibits heat shock 70-kDa protein (Hsp70) activity. In mouse neuroblastomas and lung tumors, the protein levels of HspBP1 and Hsp70 are elevated by a similar amount compared to non-tumor tissues. However, no studies have been reported regarding the levels of HspBP1 in human cancer tissues. Our previous proteomic study demonstrated that the expression of Hsp70 was increased in human hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCV-HCC) tissues. Here, we investigated the expression of HspBP1 in human HCV-HCC. Immunoblotting analysis of HspBP1 and Hsp70 was performed in human HCV-HCC tissues from 20 patients. In 80% of the patients, Hsp70 increased an average of 3.55-fold, and in 50% of the patients, HspBP1 increased an average of 2.02-fold. Comparison and analysis of expression and clinical data revealed a significant difference between moderately-differentiated HCC and non-tumor tissues. In addition, there w...

Differential Expression of Heat Shock Protein (HSP) 70-2 Gene Polymorphism in Benign and Malignant Pancreatic Disorders and Its Relationship with Disease Severity and Complications

Jop Journal of the Pancreas, 2012

Context: The role of heat shock protein (HSP) 70-2 gene polymorphism (at position 1267, A to G transition) in patients with pancreatic disorders is not clear. Objective: To evaluate HSP 70-2 gene polymorphism (at position 1267, A to G transition) in patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis as well as pancreatic carcinoma, and to find any association of this polymorphism with disease complications and severity. Methods: One-hundred and fifty patients (50 each of acute, chronic pancreatitis, and pancreatic carcinoma) and 50 healthy blood donors as controls were prospectively studied. Three alleles (AA, AG and GG) of HSP 70-2 gene determined by PstI restriction fragment length polymorphism. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the distribution pattern of HSP 70-2 gene polymorphism in patients with acute pancreatitis (P=0.001) and pancreatic carcinoma (P<0.001) as compared to controls. The frequency of mutant allele (G allele) was significantly higher in diseased group as compared to control group (19% in control group, 40% in acute pancreatitis, 33% in chronic pancreatitis and 45% in pancreatic carcinoma). No association of this polymorphism was found with disease severity in patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis or pancreatic carcinoma. Conclusions: In our patient sample the frequency of mutant allele (G allele) of HSP 70-2 gene is significantly higher in patients with acute pancreatitis and pancreatic carcinoma compared to controls (50 healthy blood donors). However, this polymorphism was not associated with disease severity and complications.

Heat Shock Protein 70 Increases Tumorigenicity and Inhibits Apoptosis in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Cancer Research, 2007

Pancreatic carcinoma is a malignant disease that responds poorly to chemotherapy because of its resistance to apoptosis. Heat shock proteins (Hsp) are not only cytoprotective but also interfere with the apoptotic cascade. Here, we investigated the role of Hsp70 in regulating apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells. Hsp70 expression was increased in pancreatic cancer cells compared with normal pancreatic ductal cells. This was confirmed by increased mRNA levels for Hsp70 in human pancreatic cancer tissue compared with neighboring normal tissue from the same patient. Depletion of Hsp70 by quercetin decreased cell viability and induced apoptosis in cancer cells but not in normal pancreatic ductal cells. To show that this is a specific effect of Hsp70 on apoptosis, levels of Hsp70 were knocked down by short interfering RNA treatment, which also induced apoptosis in cancer cells as indicated by Annexin V staining and caspase activation. Daily administration of quercetin to nude mice decreased tumor size as well as Hsp70 levels in tumor tissue. These findings indicate that Hsp70 plays an important role in apoptosis and that selective Hsp70 knockdown can be used to induce apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells. [Cancer Res 2007;67(2):616-25]

Expression levels of heat shock protein 20 decrease in parallel with tumor progression in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Oncology Reports, 2007

Heat shock protein (HSP) 20, a low-molecularweight HSP, is constitutively expressed in various tissues, such as smooth muscle, skeletal muscle, and liver. However, the characteristics and function of HSP20 have not been precisely understood. In the present study, we investigated correlations of expression levels of HSP20 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and the surrounding tissues with clinical and pathologic characteristics in 53 resected HCC specimens. Although HSP20 was detected in all 53 HCC tissues, the expression levels were reduced compared with those in the adjacent non-tumor tissues. The expression levels of HSP20 were inversely correlated with tumor stage by TNM classification (p<0.01), presence of microvascular invasion (p<0.05), and tumor size (p<0.05). Our findings strongly suggest that HSP20 may play a role against the progression of human HCC.

Increased expression of high but not low molecular weight heat shock proteins in resectable lung carcinoma

Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2001

Strong expression of high-molecular-weight (HMW) heat-shock proteins (HSP) by lung carcinoma has been documented using immunohistochemistry. Far less is known about the expression of low-molecular-weight (LMW) HSP in lung cancer. We compared the quantitative expression of HMW (HSP-60, HSP-70) and LMW (HSP-27, ubiquitin) HSP in tumor and non-tumor lung tissue obtained from 47 patients undergoing surgical resection of lung carcinoma. HSP levels were determined in cell lysates from tissue samples by ELISA using streptavidin-biotin technology. Results were normalized to total protein content measured by spectrophotometry. Compared to disease-free lung tissue, tumor tissue samples showed higher levels of both HSP-60 (median value: 227 pg versus 96 pg per mg protein (P<0.001 by Wilcoxon Rank test for paired data) and HSP-70 (median value: 525 ng versus 401 ng per mg protein (P=0.01 by Wilcoxon Rank test for paired data). Tumor and tumor-free tissues show similar levels of ubiquitin and...

Impact of Heat Shock Proteins in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

International Journal of Cell Science & Molecular Biology

Heat shock proteins are highly conserved proteins, expressed at low levels under normal conditions. Heat shock proteins significantly induced in response to cellular stresses and lead to heat shock response, which could help cancer cells to adapt to stress conditions. As molecular chaperones, Heat shock proteins play critical roles in protein homeostasis, apoptosis, invasion and cellular signaling transduction. A heat shock protein over expression is widely reported in many human cancers due to constant stress condition in tumor microenvironment. Heat shock proteins often associated with poor prognosis in many types of human cancers. Up regulation of Heat shock proteins may serve as diagnostic and prognostic markers in hepatocellular carcinoma. Targeting Heat shock proteins with specific inhibitor alone or in combination with chemotherapy regimens holds promise for the improvement of outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma patients. In addition, our study suggests progression and challenges in targeting these Heat shock proteins as novel therapeutic strategies in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Heat shock proteins in animal neoplasms and human tumours—a comparison

Cell Stress and Chaperones, 2008

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are implicated in all phases of cancer from proliferation, impaired apoptosis and sustained angiogenesis to invasion and metastasis. The presence of abnormal HSP levels in several human tumours suggests that these proteins could be used as diagnostic and/or prognostic markers, whilst the direct correlation between HSP expression and drug resistance in neoplastic tissues means they could also be used to predict cancer response to specific treatment. HSPs have also been successfully targeted in clinical trials modifying their expression or chaperone activity. Preliminary studies in veterinary medicine have also demonstrated the presence of altered HSP expression in neoplasms, and the study of carcinogenesis and the role of HSPs in animal models will surely be an additional source of information for clinical cancer research.