Platelet Isoform of Phosphofructokinase Promotes Aerobic Glycolysis and the Progression of Non‑Small Cell Lung Cancer
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MOLECULAR MEDICINE REPORTS 23: 74, 2021 Platelet isoform of phosphofructokinase promotes aerobic glycolysis and the progression of non‑small cell lung cancer FUAN WANG1, LING LI2 and ZHEN ZHANG3 1Department of Surgical Group, Medical College of Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan, Henan 467000; 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, First People's Hospital of Jinan, Jinan, Shandong 250000; 3Department of Neurosurgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Jinan, Shandong 250012, P.R. China Received April 2, 2020; Accepted October 19, 2020 DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2020.11712 Abstract. The platelet isoform of phosphofructokinase by western blotting. Glucose uptake, lactate production and (PFKP) is a rate‑limiting enzyme involved in glycolysis that the adenosine trisphosphate/adenosine diphosphate ratio serves an important role in various types of cancer. The aim were measured using the corresponding kits. The results of of the present study was to explore the specific regulatory the present study demonstrated that PFKP expression was relationship between PFKP and non‑small cell lung cancer upregulated in NSCLC tissues and cells, and PFKP expression (NSCLC) progression. PFKP expression in NSCLC tissues was related to lymph node metastasis and histological grade. and corresponding adjacent tissues was detected using In addition, overexpression of PFKP inhibited cell apoptosis, reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reac‑ and promoted proliferation, migration, invasion and glycolysis tion (RT‑qPCR) and immunohistochemical analysis. PFKP of H1299 cells, whereas knockdown of PFKP had the opposite expression in human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE) and effects. In conclusion, PFKP inhibited cell apoptosis, and NSCLC cells (H1299, H23 and A549) was also detected using promoted proliferation, migration, invasion and glycolysis of RT‑qPCR. Cell proliferation was detected by Cell Counting NSCLC cells; these findings may lay the foundation for novel Kit‑8 and colony formation assays. Transwell invasion and treatments of NSCLC. wound healing assays, and flow cytometry were used to detect cell invasion, migration and apoptosis, respectively. Introduction The expression levels of glycolysis‑associated enzymes (hexokinase‑2, lactate dehydrogenase A and glucose trans‑ Lung cancer is one of the major diseases endangering human porter‑1), epithelial‑mesenchymal transition‑related proteins health worldwide (1). The incidence and mortality rates of (N‑cadherin, vimentin and E‑cadherin) and apoptosis‑related lung cancer are high, particularly non‑small cell lung cancer proteins (caspase‑3 and B‑cell lymphoma‑2) were detected (NSCLC) (2,3). Invasion and metastasis are the main causes of poor prognosis and high mortality rate in patients with lung cancer (4). Although great efforts, such as the identification of novel biomarkers, establishment of modified operations and development of specific drugs, have been made in the clinical Correspondence to: Dr Zhen Zhang, Department of Neurosurgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital, 324 Jingwuwei 7th Road, Jinan, setting, the postoperative survival rate of patients has not Shandong 250012, P.R. China significantly improved (5,6). Therefore, it is of great clinical E‑mail: [email protected] significance to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying the progression of NSCLC. Abbreviations: ADP, adenosine diphosphate; ATP, adenosine Glucose metabolism is one of the most distinguishing triphosphate; BC, breast cancer; Bcl‑2, B‑cell lymphoma‑2; CCK‑8, characteristics between normal and tumorigenic cells (7). Cell Counting Kit‑8; EMT, epithelial‑mesenchymal transition; Tumor cells mainly rely on glycolysis to obtain energy, even in FBS, fetal bovine serum; GBM, glioblastoma; Glut‑1, glucose aerobic environments; this is known as the Warburg effect (8). transporter‑1; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; HK‑2, hexokinase‑2; A previous study revealed that the growth and survival of HRP, horseradish peroxidase; IHC, immunohistochemistry; tumor cells depend on the transformation from anaerobic LDHA, lactate dehydrogenase A; NSCLC, non‑small cell lung glycolysis to aerobic glycolysis (9). Aerobic glycolysis provides cancer; OD, optical density; PFK‑1, phosphofructokinase‑1; PFKL, liver isoform of phosphofructokinase; PFKP, platelet isoform of a material basis for the survival, growth and proliferation of phosphofructokinase; PKM2, pyruvate kinase M2; RT‑qPCR, tumor cells (10). Furthermore, a large amount of lactic acid reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction; causes damage to the body, which is conducive to tumor siRNA, small interfering RNA tissues invading adjacent normal tissues (11). In recent years, the Warburg effect has garnered much attention in the study Key words: PFKP, NSCLC, aerobic glycolysis, proliferation, EMT of tumor development mechanisms (12,13). Although the Warburg effect has been recognized in NSCLC (14‑16), the driving mechanism of aerobic glycolysis remains unknown. 2 WANG et al: PFKP PROMOTES PROGRESSION OF NSCLC The platelet isoform of phosphofructokinase (PFKP) is a the slides were incubated with a secondary antibody labeled rate‑limiting enzyme involved in glycolysis, which can cause with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) (1:2,000; cat. nos. ab205719 the conversion of fructose 6‑phosphate to fructose 1,6‑bisphos‑ or ab205718; Abcam) for 30 min at room temperature and phate (17). Enhanced activity of PFKP can increase glycolysis, 3'‑diaminobenzidine reagent (Beijing Solarbio Science & increase fatty acid oxidation, and promote DNA biosynthesis Technology Co., Ltd.) was added to the slides for visualization. and repair, thereby enhancing tumor cell growth, migration Finally, the sections were dehydrated, cleared with xylene and and invasion (18,19). It has been reported that PFKP expres‑ fixed with resin. Two experienced pathologists independently sion is upregulated in various types of cancer, including breast analyzed the IHC results. Brown particles were considered cancer (BC) (20), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (17) and positive expression of PFKP, HK‑2 and PKM2. renal carcinoma (21). However, to the best of our knowledge, the specific regulatory relationship between PFKP and NSCLC Cell culture. Human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE) and progression remains unclear. NSCLC cells (H1299, H23 and A549) were purchased from The present study aimed to assess the effects of PFKP on American Type Culture Collection. All cells were grown in NSCLC progression, and further investigated the effects of RPMI‑1640 medium (Gibco; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) PFKP on cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS; Gibco; glycolysis. The present findings may provide a basis for novel Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) and cultured in an incubator strategies for the treatment of NSCLC. containing 5% CO2 at 37˚C. Materials and methods Cell transfection. H1299 cells were divided into control (without treatment), pVMV6‑ENTRY [negative control (NC); The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data analysis. The cells were transfected with pCMV6 empty plasmid] and mRNA gene expression data were downloaded from TCGA pVMV6‑PFKP (overexpression of PFKP; cells were trans‑ LUAD datasets (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/). Overall fected with pCMV6‑PFKP plasmid) groups. H23 cells were survival information of all TCGA datasets was obtained divided into control (without treatment), small interfering RNA from supplementary data (22). For differentially expressed (siRNA/si)‑NC (NC; cells were transfected with NC siRNAs), gene (DEG) analysis, PFKP mRNA expression in cancer si1‑PFKP (knockdown of PFKP; cells were transfected with tissues and paracancerous (normal) tissues was analyzed si1‑PFKP) and si2‑PFKP (knockdown of PFKP; cells were using the DESeq2 R package (23); the adjusted P‑value for transfected with si2‑PFKP) groups. The plasmids (50 ng) and each gene was calculated using the false‑discovery rate siRNAs (50 nM) were transfected into cells (1x104 cells/well) (FDR) method. The cut‑off to detect DEGs was an FDR of using Lipofectamine® 3000 (Invitrogen; Thermo Fisher <0.05 and an absolute log2‑fold change of >1. For overall Scientific, Inc.) according to the manufacturer's instructions. survival analysis, data analysis was performed in R package The pCMV6‑PFKP, pVMV6‑ENTRY, siRNA and siRNA‑NC ‘survival’ (24) using the Kaplan‑Meier curve method, and a were purchased from OriGene Technologies, Inc. The log‑rank test was used to compare survival times between sequences for the siRNAs were as follows: si‑NC sense, 5'‑GGC two groups. UAC GUC CAG GAG CGC AUU‑3' and antisense, 5'‑UGC GCU CCU GGA CGU AGC CUU‑3'; si1‑PFKP sense, 5'‑GCU CCA Patient and tissue samples. In the present study, NSCLC UUC UUG GGA CAA ATT‑3' and antisense, 5'‑AGA UUC UGG tissues and corresponding adjacent tissues (>2 cm away AAG GAA CAC CTT‑3'; si2‑PFKP sense, 5'‑GGU GUU CCU from the tumor edge) were collected from 84 patients who UCC AGA AUC UTT‑3' and antisense, 5'‑UUU GUC CCA AGA underwent primary surgical resection of NSCLC between AUG GAG CTT‑3'; and PFKP sense, 5'‑GGA CGC GGA CGA January 2018 and December 2019 at Shandong Provincial CTC CCG GGC‑3' and antisense, 5'‑GTC AGA CAC TCC AGG Hospital (Jinan, China). None of the patients received radio‑ GCT GCA CAT GTT CC‑3'. A total of 48 h post‑transfection, therapy or chemotherapy prior to surgical resection, and follow‑up experiments were conducted. the diagnosis of NSCLC was assessed by an experienced pathologist. All tissue samples were