Research Paper|Volume 14, Issue 9|pp 3874—3886

Expression status and prognostic significance of mitochondrial dynamics OPA3 in human ovarian cancer

Hsiao-Wen Tsai^1,^2,³, Chia-Jung Li^1,², Li-Te Lin^1,^2,³, An-Jen Chiang^1,⁴, San-Nung Chen¹, Zhi-Hong Wen⁵, Kuan-Hao Tsui^1,^2,^3,^4,^6,^7,^8,⁹

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan
²Institute of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan
³Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei 112, Taiwan
⁴Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan
⁵Department of Marine Biotechnology and Resources, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan
⁶Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan
⁷Department of Pharmacy and Master Program, College of Pharmacy and Health Care, Tajen University, Pingtung County 907, Taiwan
⁸Department of Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
⁹College of Health and Nursing, Meiho University, Pingtung 912, Taiwan

Received: December 31, 2021Accepted: April 25, 2022Published: May 4, 2022

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204050

Copyright: © 2022 Tsai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer and the discovery of prognostic markers can significantly improve survival and reduce mortality. OPA3 protein exists in a structure called mitochondria, which is the energy production center of cells, but its molecular and biological functions in ovarian cancer are still unclear. Here, the expression of OPA3 mRNA in ovarian cancer was estimated using TCGA, Oncomine, TIMER databases. We found that functional OPA3 activation caused by mutations and profound deletions predicted poor prognosis in OV patients. OPA3 was highly expressed in both OV tissues and cells compared to normal ovarian tissues/cells. High OPA3 expression is associated with poorer overall survival (OS). The association between OPA3 and immune infiltration of ovarian cancer was assessed by TIMER and CIBERSORT algorithms. OPA3 showed a strong correlation with various immune marker sets. Most importantly, pharmacogenetic analysis of OV cell lines revealed that OPA3 inactivation was associated with increased sensitivity to PFI-1, and WZ4003. Therefore, we investigated the clinical application of OPA3 to provide a basis for sensitive diagnosis, prognosis and targeted treatment of ovarian cancer.