KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the metabolic transcript-related subtypes of MSI-H CRC and identify a biomarker for predicting survival outcomes.
- Researchers noticed ENO2 as a promising prognostic biomarker linked to MSI-H CRC progression.
Microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) has emerged as a significant biological characteristic of colorectal cancer (CRC), often associated with a better prognosis compared to microsatellite stable (MSS)/microsatellite instability-low (MSI-L) CRC. However, some MSI-H CRC patients exhibit unique molecular features and poorer outcomes.
Junwen Cai and the team aimed to investigate the metabolic transcript-related subtypes of MSI-H CRC and identify a biomarker for predicting survival outcomes.
They performed an inclusive analysis by obtaining single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data of MSI-H CRC patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. They identified a malignant cell subpopulation at the single-cell level using the copy number variation (CNV) score. The metabolic landscape of various cell types was examined using metabolic pathway gene sets. Functional experiments were conducted to investigate the biological significance of the hub gene in MSI-H CRC. Finally, the predictive potential of the hub gene was assessed using a nomogram.
The study revealed a malignant tumor cell subpopulation from scRNA-seq data. MSI-H CRC was clustered into two subtypes based on metabolism-related gene expression profiles, identifying ENO2 as a hub gene. Functional experiments with ENO2 knockdown and overexpression demonstrated its role in promoting CRC cell migration, invasion, glycolysis, and EMT in vitro.
High ENO2 expression in MSI-H CRC patients correlated with worse clinical outcomes, including increased tumor invasion depth (P = 0.007) and a higher likelihood of perineural invasion (P = 0.015). Nomogram and calibration curves based on ENO2 exhibited potential prognostic predictive performance.
The study concluded that ENO2 serves as a novel prognostic biomarker associated with the progression of MSI-H CRC.
This study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Wenzhou Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Project.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38724951/
Cai J, Yang Y, Zhang L, et al. (2024). “Investigation of ENO2 as a promising novel marker for the progression of colorectal cancer with microsatellite instability-high.” BMC Cancer. 2024 May 9;24(1):573. doi: 10.1186/s12885-024-12332-4. PMID: 38724951; PMCID: PMC11080076.
