PECAM1 plays a role in the pathogenesis and treatment of bone metastases

Bone is the third most common metastatic site for all primary tumors, the common primary focus of bone metastases include breast cancer, prostate cancer, and so on. And the median survival time of patients with bone metastases is only 2-3 years. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new targets to diagnose and treat bone metastases. Based on two data sets GSE146661 and GSE77930 associated with bone metastases, it was found that 209 genes differentially expressed in bone metastases group and control group. PECAM1 was selected as hub-gene for the follow-up research after constructing protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and enrichment analysis. Moreover, q-PCR analysis verified that the expression of PECAM1 decreased in bone metastatic tumor tissues. PECAM1 was believed to be possibly related to the function of osteoclasts, we knocked down the expression of PECAM1 with shRNA in lymphocytes extracted from bone marrow nailed blood. The results indicated that sh-PECAM1 treatment could promote osteoclast differentiation, and the sh-PECAM1-treated osteoclast culture medium could significantly promote the proliferation and migration of tumor cells. These results suggested that PECAM1 may be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of bone metastases of tumor.

Automated summary

Bone is a common site for metastasis from various primary tumors, with breast cancer and prostate cancer being the most common. The median survival time for patients with bone metastases is short, emphasizing the need for new targets for diagnosis and treatment. Through the analysis of gene expression in bone metastasis using two data sets, PECAM1 was identified as a potential biomarker. Further experiments showed that PECAM1 may have a role in osteoclast function, and its downregulation promoted osteoclast differentiation and enhanced tumor cell proliferation and migration. These findings suggest that PECAM1 could be a promising target for the diagnosis and treatment of bone metastases.