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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation in Gastrointestinal Cancer
Published on: September 18, 2020
Differential expression of the eukaryotic release factor 3 (eRF3/GSPT1) according to gastric cancer histological
J Malta-Vacas1, C Aires, P Costa
1Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa, 1990-096 Lisboa, Portugal.
Background:
There are now several lines of evidence to suggest that protein synthesis and translation factors are involved in the regulation of cell proliferation and cancer development.
Aims:
To investigate gene expression patterns of eukaryotic releasing factor 3 (eRF3) in gastric cancer.
Methods:
RNA was prepared from 25 gastric tumour biopsies and adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa. Real time TaqMan reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to measure the relative gene expression levels. DNA was isolated from tumour and normal tissues and gene dosage was determined by a quantitative real time PCR using SYBR Green dye.
Results:
Different histological types of gastric tumours were analysed and nine of the 25 tumours revealed eRF3/GSPT1 overexpression; moreover, eight of the 12 intestinal type carcinomas analysed overexpressed the gene, whereas eRF3/GSPT1 was overexpressed in only one of the 10 diffuse type carcinomas (Kruskal-Wallis Test; p < 0.05). No correlation was found between ploidy and transcript expression levels of eRF3/GSPT1. Overexpression of eRF3/GSPT1 was not associated with increased translation rates because the upregulation of eRF3/GSPT1 did not correlate with increased eRF1 levels.
Conclusions:
Overexpression of eRF3/GSPT1 in intestinal type gastric tumours may lead to an increase in the translation efficiency of specific oncogenic transcripts. Alternatively, eRF3/GSPT1 may be involved in tumorigenesis as a result of its non-translational roles, namely (dis)regulating the cell cycle, apoptosis, or transcription.
