The clinical relationship between the slug-mediated Puma/p53 signaling pathway and radiotherapy resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

T. Xu, Y. Yuan, D.-J. Xiao

Department of Otolaryngology, The Second People’s Hospital of Wuxi, Wuxi, Jiangsu, P.R. China. dajiang_xiao1@163.com

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• Oncology

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical relationship between the Slug-mediated Puma/p53 signaling pathway and radiotherapy resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty surgical specimens were collected from nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients treated at our hospital between February 2010 and February 2015. Twenty patients with poorly differentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma with and without radiotherapy resistance were included in the experimental and control groups, respectively. Slug, Puma, and p53 expression were quantified in all tissues using fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS: Slug and p53 mRNA levels were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (p < 0.01). Puma mRNA levels were significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group (p < 0.01). Slug protein expression was significantly higher in the experimental group (6.07 ± 0.203 μg/L) than in the control group (1.24 ± 0.171 μg/L) (p < 0.01). p53 protein expression was significantly higher in the experimental group (4.28 ± 0.108 μg/L) than in the control group (0.63 ± 0.101 μg/L) (p < 0.01). Puma protein expression was significantly lower in the experimental group (0.43 ± 0.11 μg/L) than in the control group (3.37 ± 0.112 μg/L) (v < 0.01). The number of Slug, Puma, and p53-positive cells in the experimental group and the control group were quantified; these values confirmed the ELISA and Western blot findings.

CONCLUSIONS: Slug downregulated the Puma protein expression signaling pathway and promoted radiotherapy resistance in poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma tissue, in a p53-independent manner.

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