Implications of TEAD4 in Metabolic Processes of Gastric Cancer [RNA-Seq]

Specifically, the Hippo pathway member TEAD4 which is implicated in all four GC molecular subtypes, as classified by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project, has been found to be hypomethylated in GC. In our research, we employed targeted hypermethylation using a combination of KRAB and DNMT3AL EpiEffectors to achieve epigenetic silencing of the TEAD4 promoter. Post-intervention, consistent with previous studies, we observed a reduction in the cancerous properties of the manipulated GC cells, such as proliferation, colony formation ability, migration, and invasion.

Interestingly, transcriptomics results suggest that TEAD4 suppression may imply the downregulation of several carbohydrate-related metabolic pathways, DNA replication and repair mechanisms, as well as carbon metabolism. These findings may offer deeper insights into the multifaceted roles of TEAD4 in the progression of GC.