title: Sperm associated antigen 9 plays an important role in bladder transitional cell carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Majority of bladder cancer deaths are caused due to transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) which is the most prevalent and chemoresistant malignancy of urinary bladder. Therefore, we analyzed the role of Sperm associated antigen 9 (SPAG9) in bladder TCC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We examined SPAG9 expression and humoral response in 125 bladder TCC patients. Four bladder cancer cell lines were assessed for SPAG9 expression. In addition, we investigated the effect of SPAG9 ablation on cellular proliferation, cell cycle, migration and invasion in UM-UC-3 bladder cancer cells by employing gene silencing approach. Our SPAG9 gene and protein expression analysis revealed SPAG9 expression in 81% of bladder TCC tissue specimens. High SPAG9 expression (>60% SPAG9 positive cells) was found to be significantly associated with superficial non-muscle invasive stage (P = 0.042) and low grade tumors (P = 0.002) suggesting SPAG9 putative role in early spread and tumorigenesis. Humoral response against SPAG9 was observed in 95% of patients found positive for SPAG9 expression. All four bladder cancer cell lines revealed SPAG9 expression. In addition, SPAG9 gene silencing in UM-UC-3 cells resulted in induction of G0-G1 arrest characterized by up-regulation of p16 and p21 and consequent down-regulation of cyclin E, cyclin D and cyclin B, CDK4 and CDK1. Further, SPAG9 gene silencing also resulted in reduction in cellular growth, and migration and invasion ability of cancer cells in vitro.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Collectively, our data in clinical specimens indicated that SPAG9 is potential biomarker and therapeutic target for bladder TCC.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Microarray, Genes and Proteins Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Deepika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kanojia
authors.affiliation: Cancer Microarray, Genes and Proteins Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Manoj
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.affiliation: Cancer Microarray, Genes and Proteins Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Shikha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saini
authors.affiliation: Cancer Microarray, Genes and Proteins Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Sumit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.affiliation: Cancer Microarray, Genes and Proteins Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Parashar
authors.affiliation: Cancer Microarray, Genes and Proteins Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Nirmala
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jagadish
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Amlesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seth
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Surgery, Safdarjung Hospital and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Amar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhatnagar
authors.affiliation: NMC Imaging and Diagnostic Centre, Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Anju
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Rotary Cancer Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Rajive
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Reproductive Physiology Section, Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.
authors.forename: Nirmal Kumar
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Lohiya
authors.affiliation: Cancer Microarray, Genes and Proteins Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Anil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suri
mesh_terms: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C111047:SPAG9 protein, human