Down-Regulation of Nucleolar and Spindle-Associated Protein 1 (NUSAP1) Expression Suppresses Tumor and Cell Proliferation and Enhances Anti-Tumor Effect of Paclitaxel in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

• Published in: PloS one 2015-11, Vol.10 (11), p.e0142252
• Main Authors: Okamoto, Atsushi, Higo, Morihiro, Shiiba, Masashi, Nakashima, Dai, Koyama, Tomoyoshi, Miyamoto, Isao, Kasama, Hiroki, Kasamatsu, Atsushi, Ogawara, Katsunori, Yokoe, Hidetaka, Tanzawa, Hideki, Uzawa, Katsuhiro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anticancer properties; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - pharmacology; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - therapeutic use; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - drug effects; Apoptosis - genetics; Biomarkers; Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics; Breast cancer; Carcinogenesis; Carcinogens; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - drug therapy; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - genetics; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - pathology; Cell cycle; Cell Cycle - drug effects; Cell Cycle - genetics; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell proliferation; Cell Proliferation - drug effects; Cell Proliferation - genetics; Cellular proteins; Chromosomes; Correlation analysis; Dentistry; Down-Regulation; Drug therapy; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Immunoblotting; Immunohistochemistry; Keratinocytes; Kinases; Laboratories; Liver cancer; Maxillofacial surgery; Medicine; Microtubule-Associated Proteins - genetics; Microtubule-Associated Proteins - metabolism; Mitosis; Mouth cancer; Mouth Neoplasms - drug therapy; Mouth Neoplasms - genetics; Mouth Neoplasms - pathology; Nucleoli; Oral cancer; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Paclitaxel; Paclitaxel - pharmacology; Paclitaxel - therapeutic use; Penicillin; Phase transitions; Physiological aspects; Polymerase chain reaction; Proteins; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; Science; Squamous cell carcinoma; Surgery; Tumors
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142252

Nucleolar and spindle-associated protein 1 (NUSAP1) is an important mitotic regulator. In addition to its crucial function in mitosis, NUSAP1 has recently received attention due to the interesting roles in carcinogenesis. The aim of this study was to reveal functional mechanisms of NUSAP1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). mRNA and protein expression levels of NUSAP1 in 9 OSCC-derived cells were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunoblotting analyses. The correlation between the NUSAP1 expression profile and the clinicopathological factors was evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in clinical OSCC samples (n = 70). The NUSAP1 knockdown cells were established with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) in OSCC cells, and functional assays were performed using these cells. In addition to the evaluation of cellular proliferation and cell cycle, we also investigated the potential role of NUSAP1 in paclitaxel (PTX)-induced cellular responses. mRNA and protein expression of NUSAP1 were significantly up-regulated in OSCC-derived cells compared with human normal oral keratinocytes (P < 0.05). IHC revealed that NUSAP-1 expression is closely associated with primary advanced T stage (P