Evaluation of gene expression level of GPRC6A, E.cadherin and ZEB1 in prostate cancer in comparison to benign tissues

Background: Prostate cancer is currently the third malignant disease in Iran and fifth common cancer worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the expression of GPRC6A, E.cadherin, and ZEB1 genes in prostate cancer in comparison with benign tumor. Since early detection of cancer plays an important role in treatment, this study aims to identify the role of GPRC6A, E.cadherin and ZEB1 genes in screening of prostate cancer. Methods: In this case-control study, 30 samples including 15 samples of malignant prostate cancer and 15 samples of benign tumor were collected from the patients. RNA was extracted from the tissues, followed by cDNA preparation. In the last step, expression of GPRC6A, E.cadherin and ZEB1 genes was measured using the Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique and the Relative expression software tool (REST), Version 2009 (http://rest.gene-quantification.info/). Results: In this study, the expression of GPRC6A genes compared to its benign tumor increased 3-fold, ZEB1 expression in prostate cancer, compared to its benign tumor, increased 2-fold, and expression of E.cadherin gene in cancerous samples compared to benign tumor declines 10 was equal. In this study, there was no significant relationship between the expression of genes in benign and malignant samples with common diagnostic factors in this type of disease such as age, Prostate-specific antigen (PSA), pathologic stage and Gleason score. Conclusion: According to this study and similar studies, increased expression of GPRC6A in prostate cancer cells can stimulate the progression of cancer cells by regulating cell proliferation and invasive response to various ligands. Increasing the expression of ZEB1 and decreasing the expression of E.cadherin is also due to the lack of binding of cells and spread of metastasis. As a result, tumors express ZEB1 with absence of E.cadherin is associated with advanced disease or metastases, which indicates that ZEB1 induces EMT and tumor progression in clinical cancers. Therefore examined genes have potential for screening prostate cancer and they can be used as a diagnostic marker for prostate cancer with further investigation.