SRSF5: a novel marker for small-cell lung cancer and pleural metastatic cancer

SR-splicing factors (SRSFs) play important roles in oncogenesis. However, the expression of SRSF 5-7 proteins in lung cancer (LC) is unclear, and their use in the diagnosis of pleural diseases has never been assessed. We evaluated SRSF 5-7 protein levels in LC and their diagnostic potential for cancer cells in lung and pleural effusion (PE) and, for the dysregulated SRSFs, investigated their neutralization effect on LC.

SRSF 5-7 levels in lung tissue and PE cell lysate samples (n=453) were compared with the results of conventional tumor markers. Knockdown of SRSF gene expression was performed using small interfering RNAs on small-cell LC (SCLC) cell lines.

In lung tissue analysis, SRSF 5-7 levels were up-regulated in LC samples compared with non-tumoral lung tissue samples; they were markedly higher in SCLC than in adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. SRSF5 showed the highest detection accuracy (89%) for total LC, and it was superior to that (74%) of carcinoembryonic antigen [CEA, a commonly used non-SCLC (NSCLC) marker]. Notably, the detection accuracies of the three SRSFs for SCLC were all 100% and higher than that (69%) of a pro-gastrin-releasing peptide (a well-known SCLC marker). In PE cell analysis, the detection accuracy (86%) of SRSF5 for malignant cells was highest among SRSFs and comparable to that (83%) of CEA. SRSF5 additionally detected 70% of CEA-missed non-NSCLC cases. Down-regulation of the SRSFs induced mild (SRSF5 and SRSF7) to remarkably (SRSF6) reduced cell proliferation.

Our results demonstrated the up-regulated expression of SRSF 5-7 proteins in LC with much more profound up-regulation in SCLC than in NSCLC and suggest that up-regulation of the SRSFs is related to SCLC proliferation. Moreover, we identified SRSF5 as a novel detection marker for SCLC and pleural metastatic cancer cells.