Augustinovich, A. V., Afanas’ev, S. G., Spirina, L. V., Klyushina, T. S., & Skvortsova, D. A. (2024). The Content of Proteins Associated with Autophagy in the Gastric Tumor Tissue, Their Relationship with the Clinical and Morphological Features of the Malignant Process and the Efficacy of the Combined Treatment. Voprosy Onkologii, 70(5), 887–893. https://doi.org/10.37469/0507-3758-2024-70-5-887-893

Abstract

Introduction. Much attention is currently being paid to studying the biological characteristics of a gastric tumor. Autophagy is a universal cellular process that is associated with tumor adaptation to changing conditions and affects the efficacy of treatment.

Aim. To study the content of LC3B, Beclin-1, ATG12, ATG7, ATG5L, ATG16L, ATG3 proteins in gastric tumor tissue in relation to clinical and morphological features of the malignant process, as well as the effect of their content on the outcome of the disease, time to progression.

Material and Methods. The study involved 22 patients with operable gastric cancer (GC) who underwent combined treatment, including preoperative polychemotherapy according to the FLOT scheme followed by surgery. The content of LC3B, Beclin 1, ATG12, ATG7, ATG5, ATG16L, AG3 proteins in the tumor was evaluated by western blotting analysis.

Results. The study showed that the content of Beclin-1, ATG7 and ATG16L increases with the size of the primary tumor and the appearance of regional metastases, which is associated with the activation of autophagy during tumor progression. It was noted that LC3B, ATG7 and ATG5L were 2.8-, 1.3- and 1.2-fold increased in HER2-positive tumors compared to HER2-negative tumors, respectively. In PD-L1-positive cancers, a 2.4-fold increase in LC3B content was observed compared to tumors with negative status. In patients with progression, ATG12, ATG5L and ATG16L were increased 1.3, 1.2 and 2.0-fold, respectively, compared to patients without progression. The fatal outcome resulted in a 1.8-fold increase in ATG16L content compared to patients with a favorable disease outcome. There was an association with the 1.4-fold increase in Beclin-1 content in patients with stabilization compared to patients with partial tumor regression.

Conclusion. Thus, we found associations between the increase of Beclin-1, ATG7, ATG16L proteins with primary tumor size and regional lymph node involvement. A correlation between autophagy activation and molecular characteristics of the tumor has been shown. The data obtained indicate that autophagy plays an important role in the oncogenic processes of gastric cancer. This 'self-digestion' determines the biological and molecular characteristics of the tumor and influences the efficacy of the treatment.

https://doi.org/10.37469/0507-3758-2024-70-5-887-893

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