Background: Cullin1 is a scaffold protein of the ubiquitin E3 ligase Skp1/Cullin1/Rbx1/F-box protein complex which ubiquitinates a broad range of proteins participating in biochemical events like cell-cycle progression, signal transduction, and transcription. Cullin1 is involved in the progression of several cancers, such as melanoma, breast cancer, and gastric cancer.
Methods: To investigate the role of Cullin1 in the development of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we examined the expression of Cullin1 in 8-paired fresh NSCLC tissues. We then constructed immunohistochemistry (IHC) on 114 paraffin-embedded slices and evaluated the correlation between Cullin1 expression and clinicopathologic variables, as well as patients' overall survival.
Results: We found that Cullin1 was highly expressed in NSCLC tissues and significantly associated with NSCLC's histological differentiation (P=0.002), clinical stage (P=0.010) and Ki-67 (P=0.021). Furthermore, we showed a strong correlation between high Cullin1 expression and worse overall survival rates in NSCLC patients (P<0.001). Cox regression analysis revealed that Cullin1 expression was an independent prognostic factor to predict 5-year patient outcome in NSCLC cancer (P=0.033).
Conclusion: These data suggested that Cullin1 might promote the progression of NSCLC and be a biotarget for NSCLC's therapy.
Keywords: Cullin1; Non-small-cell lung cancer; Prognosis; Proliferation.
Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier GmbH.