Serous Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Investigating the Role of Plakins in Metastasis

By: Celeste L. Dixon
Posted: Monday, February 10, 2025

The immunohistochemical expression of specific cytoskeletal proteins known as plakins in primary tumors may affect the clinical progression and survival of patients with serous epithelial ovarian cancer, according to research results published in the journal Cancers. Nuzhat Ahmed, PhD, of Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, and colleagues set out to identify which plakins might be involved in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, information that might help clinicians better treat patients with advanced disease.

Using primary epithelial ovarian cancer biopsies from 48 patients, the team evaluated the relationship between plakin expression and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition as epithelial ovarian cancer progresses. Plakin expression was enhanced in early stages and grades of epithelial ovarian cancer, they found, but this expression diminished as epithelial ovarian cancer progressed. The plakins they focused on were plectin, periplakin, envoplakin, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition–related proteins.

Plakins are crucial in maintaining cytoskeletal integrity, the authors explained. The fact that plakins have diminished expression as epithelial ovarian cancer progresses could “impact the connections of plakins with membrane-bound receptors, which impede the downstream signaling required for the initiation of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition as the tumors progress,” they hypothesized. Additionally, expression of plectin and periplakin “is decreased in high-grade compared to low-grade epithelial ovarian cancers with mixed epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition–marker protein expression, [which] is supported by the correlation of high plectin and periplakin expression with an epithelial rather than mesenchymal phenotype.”

The data suggest that changes in plakin expression, and possibly the linked signaling pathways, precede epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition changes in epithelial ovarian cancer cells. Preclinical research such as this may help to move the needle on survival of patients diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer, about 60% of whom currently die within 5 years because of recurrence.

Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Cancers

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