Serum DJ-1 Is a Biomarker of Colorectal Cancer and DJ-1 Activates Mitophagy to Promote Colorectal Cancer Progression

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer and the third cancer-associated death in Taiwan. Currently used serum markers for detecting colorectal cancer lack excellent diagnostic accuracy, which results in colorectal cancer being often recognized too late for successful therapy. Mitophagy is the selective autophagic degradation of damaged or excessive mitochondria. DJ-1 is an antioxidant protein that attenuates oxidative stress and maintains mitochondrial quality through activating mitophagy. Mitophagy activation contributes to anti-cancer drug resistance. However, the role of DJ-1-induced mitophagy in colorectal cancer progression remains unclear. In the present study, we collected matched tumor and adjacent normal tissues and serum from patients and cancer cells to demonstrate the clinical value and physiological function of DJ-1 in colorectal cancer. We found that DJ-1 increased in tumor tissues and serum; it was positively correlated with TNM (tumor-node-metastasis) stages of colorectal cancer patients. Through stable knockdown DJ-1 expression in metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma cells SW620, DJ-1 knockdown inhibited cancer cell survival, migration, and colony formation. In SW620 cells, DJ-1 knockdown induced an incomplete autophagic response that did not affect ATP production; DJ-1 knockdown enhanced intracellular reactive oxygen species generation and damaged mitochondrial accumulation and mitophagy inhibition. It suggests that DJ-1 knockdown inhibits mitophagy that causes metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma cells to be unable to remove damaged mitochondria and further enhance cancer cell apoptosis. Our data indicate that DJ-1 might be clinically valuable as serum and tissue biomarkers for predicting the TNM stage in colorectal cancer patients. Since DJ-1-induced mitophagy promotes tumor progression, DJ-1 inhibition is a potential therapeutic strategy for colorectal cancer treatment.