ArticleJournal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR2021
TRAIL promotes epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition by inducing PD-L1 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas.
Article in Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Biological role of the bidirectional interaction between epithelial-mesenchymal transition and PD-L1 expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas: A systematic review.Medicina oral, patologia oral y cirugia bucal · 2023Pooled it
- Helping Apo2L/TRAIL in the Battle: Synergistic Therapeutic Approaches for Cancer Therapies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- TNFSF10: a promising prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for immunotherapy in testicular germ cell tumors.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Targeting SERPINB3-MAPK axis-mediated cuproptosis resistance enhances the response to antitumor immunotherapy.Molecular cancer · 2025Article
- From Invaginating Site to Deep Lesion: Spatial Transcriptomics Unravels Ectopic Endometrial Penetration Features in Adenomyosis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Metabolic state uncovers prognosis insights of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Distinct immune signatures for predicting the immunotherapy efficacy of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2025Article
- M2-like Macrophages-derived CCL17 Promotes Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Metastasis and Stemness via Activating CCR4-mediated ERK/PD-L1 Pathway.Current molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Role of FHOD1 in tumor cells and tumor immune microenvironment.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Single-cell transcriptome analysis reveals reciprocal epithelial and endothelial cell evolution in ovarian cancer.iScience · 2024Article
- Establishment and validation of the prognostic risk model based on the anoikis-related genes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Annals of medicine · 2024Article
- The role of programmed death receptor (PD-)1/PD-ligand (L)1 in periodontitis and cancer.Periodontology 2000 · 2024Review
- Single-cell sequencing analysis reveals the dynamic tumour ecosystems of primary and metastatic lymph nodes in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2024Article
- GALNT6 promotes bladder cancer malignancy and immune escape by epithelial-mesenchymal transition and CD8Cancer cell international · 2024Article
- Review
- Review
- Identification and validation of UBE2B as a prognostic biomarker promoting the development of esophageal carcinomas.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Nucleoporin 93, a new substrate of the E3 ubiquitin protein ligase HECTD1, promotes esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression.Human cell · 2024Article
- Review
- Extracellular vesicles derived from M2-polarized tumor-associated macrophages promote immune escape in ovarian cancer through NEAT1/miR-101-3p/ZEB1/PD-L1 axis.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTumor necrosis factor-associated apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) was initially considered an immunity guard; however, its function remains controversial. Besides immune cells, lung and colon cancer cells have also been reported to express TRAIL, which can promote tumor invasion and metastasis. However, the biological function and underlying mechanism of action of TRAIL in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain poorly elucidated.
methodsThe ESCC cells stemness, migration, and proliferation ability was assessed by sphere formation, Transwell, and CCK8 assay. The stemness- and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)- related genes expression levels were analyzed by Western blot and RT-qPCR. The signal activation was conducted by Western blot. The xenograft mouse experiments and lung metastasis model were performed to confirm our findings in vitro.
resultsHerein, we found that TRAIL is a negative predictor in patients with ESCC. To further investigate the biological function of TRAIL, we established TRAIL knockdown and overexpression ESCC cell lines and found that TRAIL induced EMT and promoted tumor aggressiveness. Furthermore, we demonstrated that TRAIL- overexpressing cells upregulated PD-L1 expression, which was dependent on the p-ERK/STAT3 signaling pathway. We obtained similar results when using recombinant human TRAIL. Finally, we validated the biological role and mechanism of action of TRAIL in vivo.
conclusionsThese findings demonstrate that TRAIL promotes ESCC progression by enhancing PD-L1 expression, which induces EMT. This may explain the failure of TRAIL preclinical trials.
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