Proteomic features of potential tumor suppressor NESG1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

We previously defined the recently revised NESG1 gene as a potential tumor suppressor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Here, we further used proteomics technology to globally examine NESG1-controlled proteins in NPC cells. Twenty-six proteins were found to be deregulated by NESG1 using proteomics analysis while enolase 1 (alpha) (ENO1), heat shock protein 90 kDa beta (Grp94), member 1 (HSP90B1), and cathepsin D (CTSD) proteins were differentially expressed by Western blot. Interestingly, a-enolase (ENO1), an overexpressed gene in NPC, was confirmed as a NESG1-regulated protein in NPC cells. Overexpressed ENO1 not only restored cell proliferation and cell-cycle progression, but also antagonized the regulation of NESG1 to cell-cycle regulators p21 and CCNA1 expression as well as induced the expression of C-Myc, pRB, and E2F1 in NESG1-ovexpressed NPC cells. Real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry analysis showed that NESG1 expression is negatively correlated with ENO1 expression in NPC tissues. Our observations suggest that ENO1 downregulation plays an important role in NESG1-induced growth inhibition of NPC cancer cells.