CDH2 gene codes for the protein N-cadherin, also known as Cadherin-2 (CDH2), or neural cadherin (NCAD). Studies on this gene has discovered that it is located on Chromosome 18-NC_000018.10, assembly GRCh38.p2 on humans, and contains 20 exons.(9) N-cadherin is one of the classification of the cadherin superfamily, and is composed of five extracellular cadherin repeats, highly conserved cytoplasmic tail and a transmembrane region. This protein’s purpose is to mediate cell-cell adhesion by interacting with adjacent cell in an anti-parallel conformation, forming a linear zip-like adhesion between cells.(9) The adhesion is calcium dependent.(10) N-cadherin have roles in development, neural tissues, cardiac muscles and in cancer metastasis. This does this via cadherin switching, which is a process where there are switches in E-cadherin expression and expression of N-cadherin, as they are complimentary to each other.(10)
Loss of cell-cell adhesion is one of the first steps of cancer metastasis, invasion, and progression, which is as a result of activation of EMT. N-cadherin is a mesenchymal stem cell marker and as more of these are expressed, E-cadherin and P-cadherin decreases, which are epithelial cell markers.(10) The cell is then considered to be a cancer cell. These markers are located on the cell surfaces, and …show more content…
Along with other genes, CAMK2N1 expression is related with more aggressive states of prostate cancer cells, indicating a more active alteration to an EMT form by tumor cells. Therefore, the greater the expression, it was an indication of their potential as markers of clinically aggressive disease. It was also related with the mobility of the tumor as well. In an experiment, pre-malignant lesions of the prostate (PIN) had significantly higher expression level of CAMK2N1, compared to organ-confined tumors or in normal prostatic