Together, our results suggest that the aberrant activation of the ISG15 pathway confers a motile phenotype to breast cancer cells by disrupting cell architecture and stabilizing proteins involved in cell motility, invasion and metastasis.
Eight identified proteins are associated with distinct steps of tumor metastasis: ubiquitin-like protein ISG15, interleukin-18, TCTP, serpin B5, annexin A3, macrophage-capping protein, ATP-dependent RNA helicase DDX3X, and cathepsin D. Real-time PCR and Western blotting results showed that both TCTP mRNA and protein were significantly increased in LoVo-PRL-3 cells compared to LoVo-control cells.
In addition, ISG15 is identified as a crucial gene signature associated with breast cancer development and metastasis via RIG-I-like receptor signaling pathway.
The results revealed that ISG15 was overexpressed in HCC tissues, and that ISG15 expression was positively correlated with HCC differentiation and metastasis.