© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 207
Q. Cai et al. (eds.), Infectious Agents Associated Cancers: Epidemiology
and Molecular Biology, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 1018,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-5765-6_13
Chapter 13
Prion Protein Family Contributes
to Tumorigenesis via Multiple Pathways
Xiaowen Yang, Zhijun Cheng, Lihua Zhang, Guiru Wu, Run Shi,
Zhenxing Gao, and Chaoyang Li
Abstract A wealth of evidence suggests that proteins from prion protein (PrP)
family contribute to tumorigenesis in many types of cancers, including pancreatic
ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), breast cancer, glioblastoma, colorectal cancer, gas-
tric cancer, melanoma, etc. It is well documented that PrP is a biomarker for PDAC,
breast cancer, and gastric cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms remain
unclear. The major reasons for cancer cell-caused patient death are metastasis and
multiple drug resistance, both of which connect to physiological functions of PrP
expressing in cancer cells. PrP enhances tumorigenesis by multiple pathways. For
example, PrP existed as pro-PrP in most of the PDAC cell lines, thus increasing
cancer cell motility by binding to cytoskeletal protein filamin A (FLNa). Using
PDAC cell lines BxPC-3 and AsPC-1 as model system, we identified that dysfunc-
tion of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor synthesis machinery resulted in
X. Yang • Z. Cheng
Department of the First Abdominal Surgery, Jiangxi Tumor Hospital,
Nanchang, Jiangxi 330029, People’s Republic of China
L. Zhang
Department of Pathology, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, People’s
Republic of China
G. Wu • R. Shi
Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy
of Sciences, 44 xiao hong shan zhong qu, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430071, People’s Republic
of China
Z. Gao
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Wuhan, Hubei Province 430071, People’s Republic of China
C. Li (*)
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430071, People’s Republic of China
Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Industrial Fermentation,
Wuhan, Hubei 430068, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: [email protected]