An actin-binding protein ESPN is an independent prognosticator and regulates cell growth for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: ESPN (Espin), an actin filament-binding protein, plays an important role in regulating the organization, dimensions, dynamics, and signaling capacities of the actin filament-rich, microvillus-type specializations that mediate sensory transduction in various mechanosensory and chemosensory cells. Recent few studies show that ESPN regulates metastasis and cell proliferation in melanoma. However, the significance of ESPN in other cancers such as esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains largely unknown.

Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed in 169 patients with ESCC and correlated with clinicopathological features and survival. The functional role of ESPN in ESCC cells was determined by ESPN-mediated siRNA.

Results: Univariate analyses showed that high ESPN expression was associated with inferior overall survival (P = 0.005) and disease-free survival (P = 0.035). High ESPN expression was an independent prognosticator in multivariate analysis for overall survival (P = 0.009, hazard ratio = 1.688) and disease-free survival (P = 0.049, hazard ratio = 1.451). The 5-year overall survival rates were 30% and 54% in patients with high and low expression of ESPN, respectively. Inhibition of endogenous ESPN in ESCC cells decreased ESCC growth by reducing cell proliferating rates.

Conclusions: High ESPN expression is independently associated with poor prognosis in patients with ESCC and downregulation of ESPN inhibits ESCC cell growth. Our results suggest that ESPN may be a novel therapeutic target for patients with ESCC.