PDLIM7 promotes tumor metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma via stabilizing FAK protein.

BACKGROUND: As an actin cytoskeleton interactor, PDZ and LIM domain protein 7 (PDLIM7) was supposed to play an essential role modulating cytoskeleton. Focal adhesions (FAs), which located at the cytomembrane terminus of actin cytoskeleton, function as a force sensor and can transform the mechanical signal to biochemical signal. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) localizes to and regulates signal transduction in FAs, which play an essential role in cell polarity, migration and invasion. However, whether PDLIM7 is involved in FAs-associated signal transduction and its role in tumor invasion and metastasis remains largely unknown.

METHODS: A cohort of 80 patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, as well as 512 PTC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) thyroid cancer database was utilized to analyze the expression of PDLIM7 and its association with prognosis. Survival data were assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves, while clinicopathological characteristics such as age, sex, tumor size, multilocality, extrathyroidal extension, lymph metastases, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, distant metastasis, and TNM stage were considered. Functional assays were performed in vitro and in a xenograft mouse model to assess the role of PDLIM7 in PTC cell lines. The colocalization of PDLIM7 with FAK and integrin alpha V (ITGAV) was determined using Immunofluorescence Assay (IF) and Immunoprecipitation Assay (IP). Protein expression levels in cell and tissue biopsies were measured through Western blotting and Immunohistochemistry (IHC).

RESULTS: (1) The PDLIM7 protein frequently upregulated in both papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) tissues and cells, and overexpression of PDLIM7 is associated with advanced clinicopathological characteristics. (2) Knockdown of PDLIM7 effectively inhibits cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in PTC cell lines in vitro. (3) Knockdown of PDLIM7 hinders the growth and metastasis of TPC-1 xenografts in vivo. (4) PDLIM7 demonstrates colocalization with both FAK and the focal adhesion molecule ITGAV and the knockdown of PDLIM7 resulted in disassembly of FAs and proteosome-dependent degradation of FAK in PTC cell lines.

CONCLUSIONS: PDLIM7 function as an oncoprotein in PTC to promote metastasis, and a novel underlying mechanism is proposed that PDLIM7 keeps FAK protein from proteosome-dependent degradation.