Expression of ADAM12 is regulated by E2F1 in small cell lung cancer

Our previous study reported that ADAM12 was highly expressed in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and could be an effective marker for diagnosis and prognosis. Yet, the reason for the high expression of ADAM12 in SCLC requires further elucidation. Transcription factor E2F1 has been receiving increasing attention due to the complexity and diversity of its function in cancer. In the present study, the expression of ADAM12 was significantly decreased following silencing of E2F1 expression by siRNA, thus indicating that E2F1 may regulate the expression of ADAM12 at the level of transcription. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-to-sequence analysis identified three binding sites for E2F1 in the locus for ADAM12. They were Chr10: 128010444-128011026, located in the intron of ADAMI2, named seq0; Chr10: 128076927-128078127, located in the promoter of ADAMI2, named seq1; and Chr10: 128086195-128086876, located in the upstream 20 kb from the transcription start site of ADAM12, named: seq2. Dual-luciferase reporter experiments revealed that seq1 not seq0 and seq2 was able to promote the expression of luciferase. Notably, co-transfection of E2F1 significantly increased the activity of seq1 not seq0 and seq2, but quantitative polymerase chain reaction results showed that seq0, seq1 and seq2 could recruit E2F1, indicating that the influence of E2F1 in regulating the expression of ADAM12 was complex. Sequence analysis clarified that seq1 was a part of the ADAM12 promoter, yet the functions of seq0 and seq2 were unknown. Fusion fragments containing seq0-seq1 or seq2-seq1 were analyzed in luciferase constructs. Compared with seq1 alone, the activities of these fusion fragments were non-significantly reduced. The activities of fusion fragments were significantly decreased following co-transfection with E2F1. Thus, the present findings support the conclusion that the E2F1 transcription factor regulates the expression of ADAM12 by binding differential cis-acting elements.