ZNF518B gene up-regulation promotes dissemination of tumour cells and is governed by epigenetic mechanisms in colorectal cancer

AbstractMost of colorectal cancer CRC-related death is due to metastasis and the finding of markers for prognosis of invasiveness, constitutes an appealing challenge. Here, after analysing cDNA array containing 43 tumour and 5 normal mucosa samples, we report that the expression of the ZNF518B gene as a whole and that of its two major splicing isoforms are significantly increased in tumours. The canonical isoform was also up-regulated in a patients’ cohort containing 70 tumour and 69 adjacent tissue samples. The effects of silencing ZNF518B on the phenotype of CRC cell lines were then studied. The gene does not affect cell proliferation, but plays a significant role in cell migration and in…