Basic Study
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World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2025; 17(3): 97673
Published online Mar 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i3.97673
Transmembrane protein 176B promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition in colorectal cancer through inflammasome inhibition
Wei Qian, Chong-Yi Xu, Wei Hong, Zhe-Ming Li, Dao-Gun Xu
Wei Qian, Chong-Yi Xu, Wei Hong, Dao-Gun Xu, Department of Proctology, Wenling Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Wenling 317500, Zhejiang Province, China
Zhe-Ming Li, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Qian W conceptualized the study, analyzed the data, developed the methodology, administered the project, and wrote the original draft; Xu CY curated the data, conducted formal analysis, and performed experiments; Hong W conducted formal analysis, performed experiments, and developed the methodology; Li ZM performed experiments, developed the methodology, and contributed to visualization; Xu DG conceptualized the study, acquired funding, administered the project, supervised the work, and reviewed and edited the manuscript. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Ministry of Education Industry-University Co-operation Collaborative Education Project, No. 202102242020.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Wenling Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal experiments were approved by the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee of the Zhejiang Eyong Pharmaceutical Research and Development Center (Approval No.: ZJEY-20231130-01) and conducted according to the guidelines of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no competing interests relevant to the contents of this article.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Dao-Gun Xu, BMed, Dean, Department of Proctology, Wenling Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, No. 21 Mingyuan Road, Taiping Street, Wenling 317500, Zhejiang Province, China. 13906569665@163.com
Received: June 5, 2024
Revised: October 30, 2024
Accepted: December 4, 2024
Published online: March 15, 2025
Processing time: 254 Days and 7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Silencing Transmembrane protein 176B (TMEM176B) inhibited tumor metastasis, proliferation, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in colorectal cancer (CRC) in situ, in mice co-cultured with natural killer (NK) cells, while activating apoptosis, NLRP3 inflammasome, and NK cell function. The interference of NLRP3 reversed these effects by modulating key proteins such as phosphorylated nuclear factor kappa B subunit 1 p65, matrix metallopeptidase 9, and transforming growth factor-β. This study highlights the critical role of TMEM176B/NLRP3 in CRC management, providing a basis for targeting this axis as a novel therapeutic approach to manage CRC progression and metastasis.