Proteomic Profiling of Chemotherapy Responses in FOLFOX-Resistant Colorectal Cancer Cells

Chemoresistance mechanisms of colorectal cancer remain largely elusive. We aim to compare the difference of chemotherapy responses between FOLFOX-resistant and wild-type colorectal cancer cells by proteomic profiling to suggest novel treatment targets. FOLFOX-resistant colorectal cancer cells DLD1-R and HCT116-R were developed by chronic exposure to progressive FOLFOX doses. Proteomic profiling of FOLFOX-resistant and wild-type cells under FOLFOX exposure were conducted by mass-spectrometry-based protein-analysis technology. Verification of selected KEGG pathways was conducted by Western blot. DLD1-R had significantly higher FOLFOX-chemoresistance (10.81 times) than its wild-type counterpart. A total of 309 and 90 differentially expressed proteins were identified in DLD1-R and HCT116-R, respectively. In terms of gene ontology molecular function, RNA binding and cadherin binding ranked first for DLD1 and HCT116 groups, respectively. For gene set enrichment analysis, ribosome pathway and DNA replication were significantly up-regulated and down-regulated in DLD1-R, respectively. The most significantly up-regulated pathway in HCT116-R was regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. Up-regulations in the ribosome pathway (DLD1-R) and actin cytoskeleton (HCT116-R) were verified by Western blot. There were several significantly altered signaling pathways in FOLFOX-resistant colorectal cancer cells under FOLFOX with notable up-regulations in the ribosomal process and actin cytoskeleton.