2020.02.08 Liu Jiayang's research were published in the international journal Oncogene

On February 8, 2021, In the international academic journal Oncogene (impact factor 7.971), Professor Liu Jia-yang published the title "ZNF37A promotes tumor metastasis through transcriptional control of THSD4/TGF-β Axis in colorectal cancer ".

The course of poorly differentiated colorectal cancer progresses rapidly and the treatment effect of patients is poor. Malignant invasion and fibroblast activation are important features of poorly differentiated colorectal cancer, however, the regulatory mechanisms remain to be investigated. Transcription factors play a key regulatory role in embryonic development and tissue differentiation, but their role and mechanism in regulating the degree of tumor tissue differentiation remain unclear.

This study found that the expression of ZNF37A, a member of the Krab-ZFP transcription factor family, was significantly up-regulated in poorly differentiated colorectal cancer and was closely associated with tumor metastasis. ZNF37A promoted the metastasis of colorectal cancer cells in both cell lines and mouse in situ models of colorectal cancer. Further studies showed that ZNF37A increased TGF-β content in the extracellular matrix and activated fibroblasts in the tumor microenvironment. Molecular mechanism studies showed that ZNF37A and KAP1 formed a complex that directly binds to the promoter region of tumor suppressor THSD4 and inhibits its transcription, thus promoting TGF-β signaling pathway activation and tumor metastasis. Our study showed that ZNF37A promotes TGF-β signaling by inhibiting THSD4 transcription and activates tumor-associated fibroblasts, which in turn promotes colorectal cancer metastasis, suggesting that ZNF37A may serve as a biomarker for the diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer.