Adverse Outcome Pathway 298: Increase in Reactive Oxygen Species Leading to Human Treatment-Resistant Gastric Cancer
Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Outline of AOP298
2.1. Structure of AOP298
2.2. Summary of Scientific Evidence Assessment
2.2.1. MIE1; KE1115: Increase in Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)
2.2.2. KE1; KE1754: Porcupine-Induced Wnt Secretion and Wnt Signaling Activation
2.2.3. KE2; KE1755: Beta-Catenin Activation
2.2.4. KE3; KE1457: Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition (EMT)
2.2.5. AO; KE1651: Treatment-Resistant Gastric Cancer
3. Discussion
4. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
| ABC | ATP-binding cassette |
| AOP | Adverse outcome pathway |
| AO | Adverse outcome |
| CDH1 | E-cadherin |
| CSC | Cancer stem cell |
| CTL | Cytotoxic T lymphocyte |
| DVL | Disheveled |
| ROS | Reactive oxygen species |
| EMT | Epithelial–mesenchymal transition |
| FZD | Frizzled |
| IPA | Ingenuity pathway analysis |
| KE | Key event |
| KER | Key event relationship |
| LDL | Low-density lipoprotein |
| LRP6 | LDL receptor-related protein 6 |
| MIE | Molecular initiating event |
| NADPH | Nicotinamide adenine diphosphate |
| PD-L1 | Programmed cell death 1 ligand |
| ZEB1 | Zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox |
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| Item | Title |
|---|---|
| AOP | Increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to treatment-resistant gastric cancer |
| MIE | KE1115: Increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) |
| KE1 | KE1754: Porcupine-induced Wnt secretion and Wnt signaling activation |
| KE2 | KE1755: Beta-catenin activation |
| KE3 | KE1457: Epithelial–mesenchymal transition |
| AO | KE1651: Treatment-resistant gastric cancer |
| Item | Evidence |
|---|---|
| MIE => KE1: Increase in ROS leads to Porcupine-induced Wnt secretion and Wnt signaling activation | Biological plausibility of MIE => KE1 is moderate. |
| Rationale: Increase in ROS is caused by/causes DNA damage, which will alter several signaling pathways, including Wnt signaling. ROS stimulate inflammatory factor production and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling [24]. | |
| KE1 => KE2: Porcupine-induced Wnt secretion and Wnt signaling activation leads to beta-catenin activation | Biological plausibility of KE1 => KE2 is moderate. |
| Rationale: Secreted Wnt ligand stimulates Wnt/beta-catenin signaling, where beta-catenin is activated. Wnt ligand binds to frizzled receptor, which leads to GSK3beta inactivation. GSK3beta inactivation leads to beta-catenin dephosphorylation, which avoids the ubiquitination of the beta-catenin and stabilizes beta-catenin [13]. | |
| KE2 => KE3: Beta-catenin activation leads to epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) | Biological plausibility of KE2 => KE3 is moderate. |
| Rationale: Beta-catenin activation, which includes stabilizing the dephosphorylated beta-catenin and translocation of beta-catenin into the nucleus, induces the formation of the beta-catenin–TCF complex and transcription of transcription factors, such as Snail, Zeb, and Twist [18,25,26,27,28]. EMT-related transcription factors, including Snail, ZEB, and Twist, are up-regulated in cancer cells [29]. Transcription factors such as Snail, ZEB, and Twist bind to the E-cadherin (CDH1) promoter and inhibit CDH1 transcription via the consensus E-boxes (5′-CACCTG-3′ or 5′-CAGGTG-3′), which leads to EMT [29]. | |
| KE3 => AO: Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) leads to treatment-resistant gastric cancer | Biological plausibility of KE3 => AO is moderate. |
| Rationale: Some cells exhibiting EMT demonstrate features of cancer stem cells (CSCs) which are related to cancer malignancy [14,30,31,32]. The EMT phenomenon is related to cancer metastasis and cancer therapy resistance [33,34]. Increased expression of enzymes that degrade extracellular matrix components and decrease adhesion to the basement membrane in EMT cause the cell to escape from the basement membrane and induce metastasis [34]. Morphological changes observed during EMT are associated with therapy resistance [34]. |
| Item | Evidence |
|---|---|
| MIE: Increase in ROS | Essentiality of the MIE is high. |
| Rationale for essentiality of the MIE in the AOP: Increase in ROS contributes to the initiation and development of human gastric cancer [35]. | |
| KE1: Porcupine-induced Wnt secretion and Wnt signaling activation | Essentiality of KE1 is moderate. |
| Rationale for essentiality of KEs in the AOP: Wnt signaling activation is essential for the subsequent beta-catenin activation and cancer resistance [36]. | |
| KE2: Beta-catenin activation | Essentiality of KE2 is moderate. |
| Rationale for essentiality of KEs in the AOP: Beta-catenin activation is essential for Wnt-induced cancer resistance [36]. | |
| KE3: Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) | Essentiality of KE3 is moderate. |
| Rationale for essentiality of KEs in the AOP: EMT is essential for Wnt-induced cancer promotion and the acquisition of resistance to anti-cancer drugs [6,7,36,37]. |
| Item | Evidence |
|---|---|
| MIE => KE1: Increase in ROS leads to Porcupine-induced Wnt secretion and Wnt signaling activation | Empirical support of MIE => KE1 is moderate. |
| Rationale: Production of ROS and DNA double-strand break causes tissue damage [38]. ROS-related signaling induces Wnt/beta-catenin pathway activation [39]. | |
| KE1 => KE2: Porcupine-induced Wnt secretion and Wnt signaling activation leads to beta-catenin activation | Empirical support of KE1 => KE2 is moderate. |
| Rationale: Disheveled (DVL), a positive regulator of Wnt signaling, forms the complex with frizzled (FZD) and triggers Wnt signaling together with Wnt coreceptor low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6) [26,40]. Wnt binds to FZD and activates Wnt signaling [26,41,42]. Wnt binding towards FZD induces the formation of the protein complex with LRP5/6 and DVL, leading to downstream signaling activation, including beta-catenin [13]. | |
| KE2 => KE3: Beta-catenin activation leads to epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) | Empirical support of the KE2 => KE3 is moderate. |
| Rationale: The inhibition of c-MET, which is overexpressed in diffuse-type gastric cancer, induces increase in phosphorylated beta-catenin and decrease in beta-catenin and Snail [18]. Garcinol, which has an anti-cancer effect, increases phosphorylated beta-catenin, decreases beta-catenin and ZEB1/ZEB2, and inhibits EMT [25]. The inhibition of sortilin by AF38469 (a sortilin inhibitor) or small interference RNA (siRNA) results in a decrease in beta-catenin and Twist expression in human glioblastoma cells [28]. Histone deacetylase inhibitors affect EMT-related transcription factors, including ZEB, Twist, and Snail [43]. Snail and Zeb induce EMT and suppress E-cadherin (CDH1) [29,44,45]. | |
| KE3 => AO: Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) leads to treatment-resistant gastric cancer | Empirical support of KE3 => AO is moderate. |
| Rationale: EMT activation induces the expression of multiple members of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter family, which results in resistance to doxorubicin [14,46]. TGFbeta-1-induced EMT results in the acquisition of cancer stem cell (CSC)-like properties [14,47]. Snail-induced EMT induces cancer metastasis and resistance to dendritic cell-mediated immunotherapy [48]. Zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox (ZEB1)-induced EMT results in the relief of miR-200-mediated repression of programmed cell death 1 ligand (PD-L1) expression, a major inhibitory ligand for the programmed cell death protein (PD-1) immune-checkpoint protein on CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL), and subsequently CD8+ T-cell immunosuppression and metastasis [49]. |
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Tanabe, S.; Quader, S.; Ono, R.; Cabral, H.; Perkins, E.J. Adverse Outcome Pathway 298: Increase in Reactive Oxygen Species Leading to Human Treatment-Resistant Gastric Cancer. Cancers 2026, 18, 268. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers18020268
Tanabe S, Quader S, Ono R, Cabral H, Perkins EJ. Adverse Outcome Pathway 298: Increase in Reactive Oxygen Species Leading to Human Treatment-Resistant Gastric Cancer. Cancers. 2026; 18(2):268. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers18020268
Chicago/Turabian StyleTanabe, Shihori, Sabina Quader, Ryuichi Ono, Horacio Cabral, and Edward J. Perkins. 2026. "Adverse Outcome Pathway 298: Increase in Reactive Oxygen Species Leading to Human Treatment-Resistant Gastric Cancer" Cancers 18, no. 2: 268. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers18020268
APA StyleTanabe, S., Quader, S., Ono, R., Cabral, H., & Perkins, E. J. (2026). Adverse Outcome Pathway 298: Increase in Reactive Oxygen Species Leading to Human Treatment-Resistant Gastric Cancer. Cancers, 18(2), 268. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers18020268

