Identification and evaluation of metastasis-related proteins, oxysterol binding protein-like 5 and calumenin, in lung tumors

Metastasis is an important prognosis factor in lung cancer, therefore, it is imperative to identify target molecules and elucidate molecular mechanism of metastasis for developing new therapeutics and diagnosis methods. We searched for metastasis-related proteins by utilizing a novel antibody proteome technology developed in our laboratory that facilitated efficient screening of useful target proteins. Two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) analysis identified sixteen proteins, which were highly expressed in metastatic lung cancer cells, as protein candidates. Monoclonal single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) binding to candidates were isolated from a scFv-displaying phage library by affinity selection. Tissue microarray analysis of scFvs binding to candidates revealed that oxysterol binding protein-like 5 (OSBPL5) and calumenin (CALU) were expressed at a significantly higher levels in the lung tissues of metastasis-positive cases than that in the metastasis-negative cases (OSBPL5; p=0.0156, CALU; p=0.0055). Furthermore, 80% of OSBPL5 and CALU double-positive cases were positive for lymph node metastasis. Consistent with these observations, overexpression of OSBPL5 and CALU promoted invasiveness of lung cancer cells. Conversely, knockdown of these proteins using respective siRNAs reversed the invasiveness of the lung cancer cells. Moreover, these proteins were expressed in lung tumor tissues, but not in normal lung tissues. In conclusion, OSBPL5 and CALU are related to metastatic potential of lung cancer cells, and they could be useful targets for cancer diagnosis and also for development of drugs against metastasis.