Overexpression of IRS-4 Correlates with Procaspase 3 Levels in Tumoural Tissue of Patients with Colorectal Cancer

We reported that insulin receptor substrate 4 (IRS-4) levels increased in tissue from colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and promoted retinoblastoma-cyclin-dependent kinase activation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of IRS-4 on IGF-1 receptor pathway and its impact on procaspase 3 and PARP expression in RKO and HepG2 cancer cell lines. The results obtained in vitro were compared with those obtained from biopsies of patients with CRC (n = 18), tubulovillous adenomas (TA) (n = 2) and in matched adjacent normal colorectal (MANC) tissue (n = 20). IRS-4 overexpression in cultured cells induced the overactivation of IGF-1/BRK/AKT/GSK-3/β-catenin/cyclin D1 pathways, which led to increased expression of procaspase 3 and PARP protein levels. Studies carried out on CRC and TA tissues revealed the overactivation of the IGF-1 receptor signalling pathway, as well as the overexpression of procaspase 3 and PARP in tumoural tissue with respect to MANC tissue. The upregulation of IRS-4 in tumoural samples correlated significantly with the increase in pIGF-1 receptor (Tyr 1165/1166) (r = 0.84; p < 0.0001), procaspase 3 (r = 0. 77; p < 0. 0005) and PARP (r = 0. 89; p < 0. 0005). Similarly, we observed an increase in the proteolysis of procaspase 3 in tumoural tissue with respect to MANC tissue, which correlated significantly with the degradation of PARP (r = 0.86; p < 0.0001), p53 (r = 0.84; p < 0.0001), and GSK-3 (r = 0.78; p < 0.0001). The stratification of patient samples using the TNM system revealed that procaspase 3 and caspase 3 increased gradually with T values, which suggests their involvement in the size and local invasion of primary tumours. Taken together, our findings suggest that IRS-4 overexpression promotes the activation of the IGF-1 receptor pathway, which leads to the increase in procaspase 3 levels in CRC.