The relationships between the chemosensitivity of human gastric cancer to paclitaxel and the expressions of class III β-tubulin, MAPT, and survivin

Lack of effective biomarkers is one of the challenges in current chemotherapy to predict drug response and sensitivity. This study was carried out to investigate the relationships between the expressions of class III β-tubulin, microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), survivin, and the sensitivity of primary gastric cancer (GC) to paclitaxel treatment. Reverse transcription PCR and Western blot were used to evaluate the mRNA and protein expressions of class III β-tubulin, MAPT, and survivin in fifty-four GC tissues. Viable tumor cells from gastric carcinomas were tested for their sensitivity to paclitaxel using adenosine triphosphate-based tumor chemosensitivity assay in vitro. Out of 54 samples, 30 samples were sensitive to paclitaxel, while the other 24 samples were resistant. The overall efficacy of paclitaxel was 55.56 % (30/54). The mRNA expressions of class III β-tubulin and survivin were significantly correlated with the histological grade (P = 0.029, 0.009, respectively). The sensitivity of GC patients to paclitaxel treatment was inversely correlated with the mRNA and protein expressions of class III β-tubulin (P < 0.01), MAPT (P < 0.05), and survivin (P < 0.05). A significant positive correlation was found between class III β-tubulin and MAPT expression at mRNA and protein levels (mRNA: P = 0.037; protein: P = 0.001). Our results indicate that the expression levels of class III β-tubulin, MAPT, and survivin are good biomarkers for predicting the sensitivity of GC to paclitaxel treatment.