2. Academic Validation
  3. CRISP3, a Potential Tumor Suppressor, Inhibits the Progression of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma by Modulating the PI3K/AKT Pathway

CRISP3, a Potential Tumor Suppressor, Inhibits the Progression of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma by Modulating the PI3K/AKT Pathway

  • Biomedicines. 2026 Feb 20;14(2):471. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines14020471.
Mingjun Ma 1 2,  Xiu Tian 1 2,  Weiwei Cao 1 2,  Chao Wang 1 2,  Yue Zhang 1 2,  Jiani Yang 1 2,  Shanshan Cheng 1 2,  Sijia Gu 1 2,  Jianxiao Li 1 2,  Yaqian Zhao 1 2,  Yaodi Shao 1 2,  Chao Huang 1 2,  Shuo Shi 1 2,  Renhao Xue 1 2,  Chen Chu 3 4,  Jindan Sheng 1 2,  Yu Wang 1 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Gynecology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
  • 2 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Shanghai Institute of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Gynecologic Oncology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
  • 3 Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
  • 4 Department of Genetics, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
PMID: 41751369 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines14020471
Abstract

Background: Ovarian Cancer (OC) remains the most common cause of gynecological cancer-related death, and about 70% of these deaths are from advanced high-grade serous ovarian Cancer (HGSOC). Cysteine-rich secretory protein 3 (CRISP3) is related to various human diseases; however, the roles and mechanisms of CRISP3 in HGSOC remain unclear. Methods: The clinical significance of CRISP3 in patients with OC was analyzed using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus databases. CRISP3 expression in OC tissues was validated by RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), quantitative PCR, and immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, we explored the effect of CRISP3 expression modulation on the biological behavior of HGSOC through CCK-8, EdU, and Transwell assays in vitro, and the differences in CRISP3 during the progression of HGSOC in vivo. We utilized RNA-seq, GSEA and Western blotting to detect CRISP3's regulatory mechanisms. Finally, we employed data from the IMvigor210 cohort and TCGA to assess the correlation of CRISP3 with clinical response to immunotherapy, and the landscape of immune cell infiltration. Results: CRISP3 expression was markedly reduced in HGSOC. In vitro studies demonstrated that CRISP3 knockdown significantly enhanced proliferation, migration, and invasion of HGSOC cells, whereas its overexpression suppressed these malignant phenotypes. Moreover, CRISP3 expression was found to be downregulated during OC progression in vivo. Mechanistically, CRISP3 acted as a tumor suppressor through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway to inhibit the progression and metastasis of HGSOC. Additionally, we observed an association between CRISP3 expression and CD8+ T cell, macrophage, neutrophil and Th1 cell infiltration. Conclusions: We demonstrate that CRISP3 suppresses tumorigenesis in HGSOC by regulating the PI3K/Akt pathway, and that alterations in its expression correlate with disease progression, supporting its utility as a biomarker.

Keywords

CRISP3; PI3K-AKT signaling pathway; cell proliferation; high-grade serous ovarian cancer; invasion.

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