MPP7 mediates EMT via Wnt/ß-catenin pathway to promote polarity changes in epithelial ovarian cancer cells.

ABSTRACT

Ovarian cancer is one of the gynecological malignancies with the highest mortality rate. Its widespread metastasis is difficult to cure, and the beneficiaries of targeted therapy are still limited, which has been a long-standing bottleneck problem. MAGUK P55 scaffold protein 7 (MPP7) plays an important role in the establishment of epithelial cell polarity, but its potential significance in epithelial ovarian cancer is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the expression profile of MPP7 and its functional role in epithelial ovarian cancer. Through analysis of TCGA and GEO databases, combined with immunohistochemical staining of ovarian tumor tissue chips, it was found that MPP7 is significantly overexpressed in epithelial ovarian cancer tissue, and its high expression is closely related to poor prognosis of patients. It has been verified through cell function experiments that interference with MPP7 can inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasion of ovarian cancer cells in vitro. Performing planar polarity immunofluorescence staining on ovarian cancer cells revealed that interference with MPP7 can cause polarity changes in ovarian cancer cells. The transcriptome sequencing results of the ovarian cancer database were analyzed, and Western Blot was used to verify that MPP7 may mediate EMT via Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway and promote changes in cell polarity in human epithelial ovarian cancer, thereby promoting cancer progression, demonstrating the potential of MPP7 as a new biomarker and target for the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer.