TY - JOUR TI - Neuron specific enolase promotes tumor metastasis by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in small cell lung cancer AU - Zha, Zhiqiang AU - Li, Dailing AU - Zhang, Peiling AU - Wang, Peipei AU - Fang, Xisheng AU - Liu, Xia AU - Weng, Chengyin AU - Li, Baoxiu AU - Wu, Yong AU - Mao, Haibo AU - Wang, Lina AU - Xu, Lin AU - Dong, Jiaming AU - Guan, Mingmei AU - Lu, Lin AU - Liu, Guolong T2 - Translational Oncology AB - Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) has been used as a specific biomarker for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. Nevertheless, the biological function and mechanism of NSE in SCLC are still unclear. In this study, we clarified the role of NSE in the progression of SCLC and found that NSE expression was positively correlated with distant metastasis. Functional analysis showed that overexpression of NSE promoted migration and invasion of SCLC cells. Mechanism analysis showed that NSE overexpression induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of SCLC cells. Moreover, overexpression of NSE increased the protein expression of β-catenin and its downstream target genes, and silencing β-catenin eliminated NSE-mediated cell migration, invasion and EMT process. Furthermore, NSE interacted with β-catenin and inhibited the degradation of β-catenin. Besides, the animal experiments also indicated that NSE could promote the EMT process and distant metastasis of SCLC cells in vivo. In summary, our results revealed that NSE could promote the EMT process of SCLC cells by activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, thereby promoting cell migration, invasion and distant metastasis, which might serve as a potential target for the therapy of SCLC patients. DA - 2021/04/01/ PY - 2021 DO - 10.1016/j.tranon.2021.101039 DP - ScienceDirect VL - 14 IS - 4 SP - 101039 J2 - Translational Oncology LA - en SN - 1936-5233 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1936523321000310 Y2 - 2021/02/25/21:26:13 KW - Epithelial-mesenchymal transition KW - Metastasis KW - Neuron-specific enolase KW - Small cell lung cancer KW - Wnt/β-catenin ER -