Increased SPC24 in prostatic diseases and diagnostic value of SPC24 and its interacting partners in prostate cancer

Suixia Chen; Xiao Wang; Shengfeng Zheng; Hongwen Li; Shouxu Qin; Jiayi Liu; Wenxian Jia; Mengnan Shao; Yanjun Tan; Hui Liang; Weiru Song; Shaoming Lu; Chengwu Liu; Xiaoli Yang

doi:10.3892/etm.2021.10355

Increased SPC24 in prostatic diseases and diagnostic value of SPC24 and its interacting partners in prostate cancer

Exp Ther Med. 2021 Sep;22(3):923. doi: 10.3892/etm.2021.10355. Epub 2021 Jun 30.

Authors

Suixia Chen^{1

2

3}, Xiao Wang^{1

3}, Shengfeng Zheng^{1

4}, Hongwen Li⁵, Shouxu Qin^{1

3}, Jiayi Liu^{1

6}, Wenxian Jia¹, Mengnan Shao¹, Yanjun Tan^{1

2}, Hui Liang¹, Weiru Song⁷, Shaoming Lu⁸, Chengwu Liu³, Xiaoli Yang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Scientific Research Center, Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi 541100, P.R. China.
² Guangxi Health Commission Key Laboratory of Disease Proteomics Research, Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi 541100, P.R. China.
³ Department of Pathophysiology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
⁴ Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
⁵ Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi 541100, P.R. China.
⁶ Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
⁷ Department of Andrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
⁸ Center for Reproductive Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250200, P.R. China.

Abstract

SPC24 is a crucial component of the mitotic checkpoint machinery in tumorigenesis. High levels of SPC24 have been found in various cancers, including breast cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, osteosarcoma and thyroid cancer. However, to the best of our knowledge, the impact of SPC24 on prostate cancer (PCa) and other prostate diseases remains unclear. In the present study expression of global SPC24 messenger RNA (mRNA) was assessed in a subset of patients with PCa included in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Increased levels of SPC24 expression were found in PCa patients >60 years old compared to patients <60 and increased SPC24 expression was also associated with higher levels of prostate specific antigen (P<0.05) and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Higher levels of SPC24 expression were associated with negative outcomes in PCa patients (P<0.05). Furthermore, in Chinese patients with prostatitis, benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and PCa, SPC24 was expressed at significantly higher levels than that in adjacent/normal tissues, as assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and western blotting. High expression of SPC24 was associated with high Gleason stages (IV and V; P<0.05). Further analysis, based on Gene Ontology and pathway functional enrichment analysis, suggested that nuclear division cycle 80 (NDC80), an SPC24 protein interaction partner, and mitotic spindle checkpoint serine/threonine-protein kinase BUB1 (BUB1), a core subunit of the spindle assembly checkpoint, may be associated with SPC24 in PCa development. Finally, using binary logistic regression, algorithms combining the receiver operating characteristic between SPC24 and BUB1 or NDC80 indicated that a combination of these markers may provide better PCa diagnosis ability than other PCa diagnosis markers. Taken together, these findings suggest that SPC24 may be a promising prostate disease biomarker.

Keywords: SPC24; benign prostatic hypertrophy; biomarker; diagnosis; prostate cancer; prostatitis.

Grants and funding

Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81560130 and 21505025) and the Guangxi Nature Science Foundation (grant nos. 2018GXNSFAA281033, 2016GXNSFDA380010 and 2013GXNSFGA019005).