P.02.1 DOWNREGULATION OF MTOR SIGNALLING IN COLORECTAL CANCER CELLS BY A COMBINATION OF EICOSAPENTAENOIC ACID-FREE FATTY ACID, EPIGALLOCATECHIN-3-GALLATE AND PROANTHOCYANIDINS

Results: In cancer-affected samples of a first explorative series (8 patients), proteomics analyses revealed a total of 19 differentially expressed spots (9 upand 10 down-regulated), which were identified after MALDI-TOF and peptide mass fingerprinting. In the same biopsies, tumor-section immunostaining localized multimerin-2 as angiogenesis modulator, and vessel length/tortuosity were measured. Among the differentially expressed proteins, we selected the following: 3 up(SNRPA, U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein, a tumor protein translationally controlled, and a SPOCD1 protein) and 3 downregulated proteins (a vasohinibin-2, a ubiquitin-60S ribosomal protein, and a tumor protein translationally controlled), already known as associated to neoplasia. Moreover, vasohinibin-2 has been reported to suppress vasodilation and angiogenesis, and to promote apoptosis-mediated vascular regression. We found in our series a possible association between vasohinibin increase in cancer-affected samples and vessel length/tortuosity, and a co-localization with multimerin2, whose putative function as homeostatic barrier halting the sprouting of novel vessels has been recently proposed. Conclusions: Further analyses are in progress to confirm and validate these preliminary results in a second series of CRC patients, as well as to get insight into protein changes associated to CRC and tumor vascularization.