DDX41 inhibits cancer cell proliferation and regulates immune response expression

DDX41, a member of the DEXDc family of helicases and an innate immune protein, senses cytosolic DNA and bacterial secondary messengers and initiates signaling via the adaptor STING to induce type 1 interferon (IFN) response in dendritic cells. However, DDX41 function in tumor progression is poorly understood. Here we found that the DDX41 inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis, reported the whole transcriptome profiling in HeLa cells. RNA-seq analyses revealed that the overexpression of DDX41 resulted in 959 genes being differentially expressed (504 up-regulated and 455 down-regulated) compared to the control in HeLa cells. Interestingly, functional clustering pathway enrichment analysis of transcription identified antigen processing and presentation pathways were significantly activated in DDX41 overexpression samples, but alternative splicing enriched in the epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway and fibroblast growth factor receptor signaling pathway. The five antigen processing and processing genes, which could regulate cross-presentation of antigens and protective antitumor immune responses, were significantly upregulated, suggesting DDX41 is the key player in tumor immunity. In conclusion, our RNA-seq data identified molecules and pathways involved in the mechanisms of DDX41 that adds to the understanding of critical DDX41 tumorigenesis functions. Overall design: transcrptional analysis of DDX41 overexpression and control in Hela cells