卵巢癌是死亡率最高的妇科肿瘤，卵巢癌中以上皮性卵巢癌所占比例和恶性程度最高。寻找新的靶点和开发新的靶向治疗方案是上皮性卵巢癌治疗的发展方向。通过收集临床上皮性卵巢癌组织和同一病人的对侧正常卵巢组织，采用高通量RNA测序技术，我们筛选出了上皮性卵巢癌新致癌基因 “外分泌腺分化和增殖因子（EXDPF）”。利用RNA干扰EXDPF的表达后，上皮性卵巢癌细胞系IGROV-1的体外增殖、迁移、克隆形成能力以及裸鼠体内肿瘤生成能力均被显著抑制，表明EXDPF具有作为上皮性卵巢癌治疗新靶点的潜力。基于我们已有的研究，本项目将继续研究：1）EXDPF在上皮性卵巢癌发生中的功能及其与临床疾病发展和预后的相关性；2）EXDPF在上皮性卵巢癌中的转录调控机制；3）EXDPF在上皮性卵巢癌中的相互作用蛋白和相关信号传导通路。从而为开发靶向EXDPF及其相关信号通路的治疗方案提供靶点和策略。

Mortality rate of ovarian cancers is highest among gynecological tumors, while epithelial ovarian cancer has the highest percentage and mortality among ovarian cancers. Screening of novel targets and designing targeted therapies are the new developing directions of clinical epithelial ovarian cancer treatments. By collecting epithelial ovarian cancer tissues and contralateral normal ovarian tissues from the same patients and using high-throughout RNA sequencing assay, we discovered a novel proto-oncogene in epithelial ovarian cancer named Exocrine Differentiation and Proliferation Factor (EXDPF). The ability of proliferation, migration and colony formation in vitro, and tumorigenesis in nude mice of an epithelial ovarian cancer cell line IGROV-1 was significantly inhibited after EXDPF expression knockdown by RNA interference. Our preliminary study showed that EXDPF has potential as a novel therapeutic target for epithelial ovarian cancer treatments. This proposal is to continue investigate: 1) EXDPF function in epithelial ovarian cancer occurrence and its relationship with clinical disease development and prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer, 2) Regulating mechanisms of EXDPF transcription in epithelial ovarian cancer, 3) EXDPF-interacting proteins and the underlying signal transduction pathways in epithelial ovarian cancer. We hope our results will significantly deepen our insight into designing efficient targeting therapies against EXDPF and/or its related signaling molecules for epithelial ovarian cancer treatments.