AHCYL1 as a potential player in lung cancer

MUÑOZ-BERNART, M; BUDNIK, N; CANEDO L; THOMAS L; CASTRO A; VIGLIANO C; PEREZ CASTRO C

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2020

AHCYL1 is a protein involved in cellular homeostasis. However,its potential contribution to pathogenesis, in particular cancer, remains unclear. We aim to explore its role focusing on lung cancer.AHCYL1 KD by shRNA caused an upregulation of pluripotencymarkers (such as POU5F1, CD133, and CD44), in addition to higher sphere-formation capacity in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. Ameta-analysis of transcriptomic data from public databases (TCGA)revealed AHCYL1 is expressed in all grade II-III lung cancer samples, but is inversely correlated to stemness-related genes and directly correlated to differentiation genes expressions.Moreover, AHCYL1 is upregulated primary biopsies of lungcancer compared to relapsed tumor samples characterized by higher tumorigenic potential. Preliminary data of immunohistochemicalanalysis in lung cancer patient samples revealed less AHCYL1 positive staining in samples corresponding tohigher stages. Statisticalsignificance was evaluated considering a cut-off p-value ≤ 0.05. Understanding AHCYL1’s role in lung cancer would contribute to betterstrategies for diagnosis and therapy