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The COVID-19 outbreak has created disaster globally, and mankind is yet to come in terms with combating this global menace. Amid this turmoil, immunocompromised individuals like cancer patients exhibit dismal immune responses toward such infection. In order to treat cancer patients during such adverse situations, it is necessary to understand the phenomena that interlink these two diseased states. Modulation of host epigenetic landscape is a key hallmark of both cancer and viral infections, including COVID-19. Our review aims to shed light upon the interplay between COVID-19 and cancer, primarily through the genetic and epigenetic modulations of the gene expression profile, so as to design better therapeutic strategies in the near future.

In this study, we show that the transmembrane glycoprotein Trop-2 is up-regulated in human prostate cancer (PCa) with extracapsular extension (stages pT3/pT4) as compared to organ-confined (stage pT2) PCa. Consistent with this evidence, Trop-2 expression is found to be increased in metastatic prostate tumors of Transgenic Adenocarcinoma of Mouse Prostate mice and to strongly correlate with α5β1 integrin levels. Using PCa cells, we show that Trop-2 specifically associates with the α5 integrin subunit, as binding to α3 is not observed, and that Trop-2 displaces focal adhesion kinase from focal contacts. In support of the role of Trop-2 as a promoter of PCa metastatic phenotype, we observe high expression of this molecule in exosomes purified from Trop-2-positive PCa cells. These vesicles are then found to promote migration of Trop-2-negative PCa cells on fibronectin, an α5β1 integrin/focal adhesion kinase substrate, thus suggesting that the biological function of Trop-2 may be propagated to recipient cells. In summary, our findings show that Trop-2 promotes an α5β1 integrin-dependent pro-metastatic signaling pathway in PCa cells and that the altered expression of Trop-2 may be utilized for early identification of capsule-invading PCa.

Dynamic crosstalk between growth factor receptors, cell adhesion molecules and extracellular matrix is essential for cancer cell migration and invasion. Integrins are transmembrane receptors that bind extracellular matrix proteins and enable cell adhesion and cytoskeletal organization. They also mediate signal transduction to regulate cell proliferation and survival. The type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR) mediates tumor cell growth, adhesion and inhibition of apoptosis in several types of cancer. We have previously demonstrated that β1 integrins regulate anchorage-independent growth of prostate cancer (PrCa) cells by regulating IGF-IR expression and androgen receptor-mediated transcriptional functions. Furthermore, we have recently reported that IGF-IR regulates the expression of β1 integrins in PrCa cells. We have dissected the mechanism through which IGF-IR regulates β1 integrin expression in PrCa. Here we report that IGF-IR is crucial for PrCa cell growth and that β1 integrins contribute to the regulation of proliferation by IGF-IR. We demonstrate that β1 integrin regulation by IGF-IR does not occur at the mRNA level. Exogenous expression of a CD4 - β1 integrin cytoplasmic domain chimera does not interfere with such regulation and fails to stabilize β1 integrin expression in the absence of IGF-IR. This appears to be due to the lack of interaction between the β1 cytoplasmic domain and IGF-IR. We demonstrate that IGF-IR stabilizes the β1 subunit by protecting it from proteasomal degradation. The α5 subunit, one of the binding partners of β1, is also downregulated along with β1 upon IGF-IR knockdown while no change is observed in the expression of the α2, α3, α4, α6 and α7 subunits. Our results reveal a crucial mechanistic role for the α5β1 integrin, downstream of IGF-IR, in regulating cancer growth.