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Survival rates for patients with gastric cancer, especially the advanced form, remain poor and the development of targeted treatments is hampered by a lack of efficient biological targets. Poly( rC ) binding protein 2 ( PCBP 2) is an RNA ‐binding protein that contributes to mRNA stabilization, translational silencing and enhancement and it has been implicated as a promoter of gastric cancer growth. In the present study, we demonstrated that the expression level of PCBP 2 was higher in human gastric cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal gastric tissues. A high level of PCBP 2 was correlated with worse postoperative relapse‐free survival and overall survival rates of gastric cancer patients. Small hairpin RNA ‐mediated depletion of PCBP 2 dramatically decreased the viability of gastric cancer cells. Cyclin‐dependent kinase 2 ( CDK 2) was positively regulated by PCBP 2 via a direct 3′ UTR binding pathway as determined using a ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation assay and a biotin pulldown assay. CDK 2 mediated the promoting role of PCBP 2. These results suggest that PCBP 2 acts as an oncogene in human gastric cancer cells and that functionally depleting PCBP 2 could be considered as a potential target for gastric cancer therapy.
Chen et al. (Mon,) studied this question.