Snail inhibits metastasis via regulation of E‑cadherin and is associated with prognosis in colorectal cancer

Weimin Wang; Jun Jin; Zhen Zhou; Yunfan Wang; Ke Min; Xin Zuo; Jiaping Jiang; Yan Zhou; Jun Shi

doi:10.3892/ol.2023.13857

Snail inhibits metastasis via regulation of E‑cadherin and is associated with prognosis in colorectal cancer

Oncol Lett. 2023 May 5;25(6):271. doi: 10.3892/ol.2023.13857. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Weimin Wang^{1

2}, Jun Jin¹, Zhen Zhou³, Yunfan Wang¹, Ke Min¹, Xin Zuo¹, Jiaping Jiang¹, Yan Zhou^{1

2}, Jun Shi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, Yixing Hospital Affiliated to Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yixing, Jiangsu 214200, P.R. China.
² Institute of Combining Chinese Traditional and Western Medicine, Medical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
³ Department of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, P.R. China.
⁴ Department of General Surgery, Yixing Hospital Affiliated to Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou University, Yixing, Jiangsu 214200, P.R. China.

Abstract

The overall survival (OS) rate of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) remains low due to the lack of clear prognostic markers. Therefore, the identification of valuable prognostic markers is urgently required. Snail and E-Cadherin (E-Cad) are important protein molecules in the EMT process and play a crucial role in tumor invasion and metastasis. The present study investigated the clinical significance of Snail and E-cad expression in CRC. Compared with those in adjacent tissue, the expression levels of Snail and E-cad were significantly increased and decreased, respectively, in CRC. Moreover, low Snail and high E-cad expression were associated with clinicopathological features and longer OS time. Furthermore, Snail and E-cad could predict the prognosis of patients with CRC. Reverse transcription-qPCR, Western blotting, Wound scratch assay, High content cell migration experiment, which showed that low Snail or high E-cad expression inhibited invasion and metastasis of CRC. In conclusion, Snail can promote CRC invasion and metastasis by regulating E-cad. Snail and E-cad expression constitute a novel prognostic marker for CRC, and the present study revealed a greater combined effect of Snail and E-cad as effective prognostic markers in CRC for the first time.

Keywords: E-cadherin; Snail; colorectal cancer; metastasis; prognosis.

Grants and funding

The present study was supported by Top Talent Support Program for Young and Middle-aged People of Wuxi Health Committee (grant. no. WX2022); Wuxi City Health Planning Commission project (grant. no. Q202168); the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant. no. BK20191149) and Scientific Research Project of Maternal and Child Health Care Association of Jiangsu Province (grant. no. FYX202119)