Snail-induced claudin-11 engenders collective migration and forms circulating tumor cell clusters to promote tumor progression

Global Summit on Oncology & Cancer

May 25-27, 2017 Osaka, Japan

Ching-Fei Li, Jia-Yang Chen, Shyh-Kuan Tai, Wen-Hao Hsu, Liang-Chun Wu, Yang-Hui Ho, Dennis Shin-Shian Hsu, Hsin-Yi Lan, Ying-Chih Chang and Muh-Hwa Yang

National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan
Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Cancer Sci Ther

Abstract :

Although epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been considered as a pivotal mechanism for cancer dissemination, the ideal EMT phenotype, i.e., dispersion of cancer cell aggregates and individual cell invasion, is difficult to be detected in real-life cancer samples. In this study, we demonstrate that the EMT inducer Snail engenders collective migration through induction of a tight junctional protein, claudin-11. Phosphorylation of tyrosine 191 and tyrosine 192 of claudin-11 recruits and activates Src, which in turns activates p190RhoGAP to suppress RhoA activity at intercellular junctions. Claudin-11 is crucial for generating circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters in vivo and is expressed in CTC clusters from head and neck cancer patients. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between claudin-11 and Snail in head and neck cancer tissues. Either claudin-11 or Snail was highly correlated with tumor progression and prognosis. This finding extends our understanding of EMT-induced migration modes in cancer cells, and delineates the mechanism responsible for the generation of CTC clusters in cancer patients.

Biography :

Ching-Fei Li has completed her Master’s degree from Yang-Ming University, and the Master’s thesis focuses on demonstating the immun-supressing effect of several extracts of Chinese medicine on T cells and macrophages. After graduation, she served as a Research Assistant in Academia Sinica for 3 years, and was involved in the projects like development of a non-invasive DNA methylation-based assay system for the risk assessment of urothelial carcinoma. Now, she is a sixth year PhD graduate student, and her title of thesis is snail-induced claudin-11 engenders collective migration and forms circulating tumor cell clusters to promote tumor progression.

Email: feifei499@yahoo.com.tw